Shadows at Dusk
by Darkblur
Summary: The sequel to my other story, Dusk Sets. With Eggman behind bars, all of the Sonic crew begin to move on with life and relationships begin to bloom...but some new dark force is gathering behind the serenity. SonicXAmy ShadowXOC BlazeXSilver
1. The Beginning of a New Adventure

**And now...it is my pleasure to present...the beginning to the sequel of my super-hit "Dusk Sets"! Before you read any further, I must warn you, being a sequel this will contain references and what-not to "Dusk Sets" so please read that story before this one.**

**To sum up what has happened between the start of this story and the end of "Dusk Sets," with Eggman behind bars, the world has finally become peaceful, apart from the occasional petty crook, and Sonic and Co were able to move on with their lives and start relationships. Of course, Amy and Sonic began to date, and Shadow and Dusk began to date as well. Silver and Blaze also began to go out, and Silver even began to help out around the palace. Rouge and Knuckles were able to spend a couple nights together, and Rouge learned that Knuckles really wasn't that bad of a guy...providing she didn't mention or go near the Master Emerald. They probably had the most bumps in their love though, what with Rouge being a jewel thief and Knuckles being the guardian of a giant jewel, but it was also difficult for her to schedule some GUN troops to guard the emerald so they could actually go out in the first place.**

**Of course, this peaceful life did have a couple drawbacks...namely boredom. Sure the dates between the couples kept things interesting, but for the most part...it was too quiet. The more active members of the group, namely Sonic, Shadow, and Dusk, grew bored really fast with this quiet life, but they were able to find things to entertain themselves. Sonic began entering Ex-Gear tournaments as did Dusk and Amy, but Dusk found another past-time to entertain herself...sparring with Shadow was always interesting and since they were constantly thinking up new ways to try and outperform one another...although, in the end, Shadow usually conceded defeat to Dusk and she took her victory spoils usually in the form of kisses.**

**This story begins roughly two months after Dusk Sets ends, and...well...I've already yakked enough. Go ahead and enjoy. I just need to say one more thing: I do not own Sonic, Amy, or any other official characters, all of them are owned by SEGA/Sonic Team. I only own Dusk.**

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Chapter 1 The Beginning of a New Adventure

In a somewhat small bedroom, the sunlight filtered through the closed blinds and managed to peg a sleeping hedgehog in the eyes. The hedgehog groaned as she was roused and shifted around a little on her mattress. Finally giving up the futile chase of sleep, the hedgehog cast the blankets off of her body and sat upright before rubbing the sleep out of her dull-blue eyes and patting down a section of her midnight-purple fur that was standing on end. Her long hair-quills that gently curled away from her neck swayed as she stood up and to help see, she gently pushed the one quill that drooped in front of and blocked about half of her left eye out of the way.

The hedgehog girl shuffled over to her dresser and started to dress herself. Over the undergarments went a black T-shirt that had a dark-silver stripe up both sides that went from the base of the shirt straight up to the collar, and a pair of long pants that had an identical color scheme. Lastly she slipped on a pair of white socks and gloves before walking back to the nightstand beside her bed.

She was Dusk Rose, a 16-year-old hedge-girl who was born in a machine out of Amy Rose's DNA. She had the special gift of umbrakinesis, which allowed her to create physical matter out of shadows, and was originally created by Dr. Eggman as a way from him to conquer the world. After meeting with her original, Dusk left Eggman and aided Amy and her friends in taking down Eggman, and she was responsible for throwing Eggman behind bars and finally bringing peace.

Dusk clasped a pair of silver bracelets, a gift from Amy, onto her wrists and slipped a pendent around her neck that was composed of a single, pure black jewel...a shadow-diamond that was a gift from Shadow.

After smiling at the rest of Shadow's gifts, three roses and a glowing green jewel, she left her room and walked down the hallway of her shared apartment and into the dining room, where she found another hedge-girl sitting at the table, sipping at her coffee.

This one had bright-pink fur and emerald green irises that shown with innocence and kindness. Her hair-quills curled inward toward the neck and she lacked the eye-blocking quill the Dusk had. Instead of wearing a T-shirt and pants, this hedgehog was wearing a red dress with a white trim that hugged her form all the way down to the waist, whereupon it suddenly bloomed outward before ending maybe a fourth of the way down her thighs. Her hands were in a pair of white gloves and her feet in white socks, there was a pair of bracelets clasped to her wrists, only those were gold instead of silver, and hanging around her neck was a necklace of soft-pink pearls.

She was Amy Rose, the 16-year-old sister and roommate of Dusk. Amy and Dusk were alike in many ways, but they were still distinctly different. For example, Amy had a short temper and wouldn't hesitate to club anyone who ticked her off with one of her hammers, which Amy could form at will, but Dusk was a bit harder to irritate. However, being a very capable fighter and being able to take control of and use shadows as weaponry brought up the question, why _would_ you want to irritate her?

"Morning Dusk!" Amy cheerfully called when she noticed her sister was up.

"Morn' Amy." Dusk replies, a little sleepiness still in her voice.

The purple hedgehog walked out of the hallway, into the kitchen, fixed herself some toast and orange juice, then sat down at the table with Amy.

"Sleep well?"Amy asks before taking another sip of her coffee.

"Yea." Dusk replies before crunching down onto one of the toast slices. "You?" she asks after swallowing.

Amy shrugs, "I had a little trouble falling asleep at first, but once I did doze off, I slept great." After finishing her sentence, Amy started fiddling with her pearl necklace. Sonic had given it to her as a surprise gift about a week ago and she's worn it every day since then.

"You anxious about today's race?" Dusk asks before starting to drink her orange juice.

"Nah. I doubt I'll win, but I hope I don't come in last."

"You should do fine Amy, but don't even think about passing me. The best view of me you'll get during the race is of my back."

Amy laughs a little before finishing off her coffee, then gets up to place the mug in the sink. After Dusk finished up her breakfast, both sisters strap on their Extreme Gear skates and take off for Tails' workshop. Amy at first had an Ex-Gear board, but after finding how much nicer the skates were during the attack on Eggman, she had Tails rebuild the board into a pair of pink and white skates, which she called the "Diamond Rose." Dusk never had normal shoes or an Ex-Gear board, the only footwear she ever had is a pair of purple, blue, and black skates that she nicknamed the "Midnight Breeze."

The purple and pink blurs race one another to Tails' house, the starting point of today's actual race between all of Sonic's gang. The finish line was the plaza at Aquanos, roughly two, two-and-a-half hundred miles away. Now that Eggman was behind bars, they could have fun like that without worrying about an attack somewhere while they were gone.

Both sisters managed to reach the workshop at the same time, and Amy slid to a halt. However Dusk, being more talented with Ex-Gear skates, gracefully curved around and did a twirl before posing as her skates set her down, no different than a figure skater on ice would've.

"Show off." Amy muttered.

Dusk merely laughed, "Its alright Amy, you'll learn how to pull off flashy moves like that someday."

Amy playfully punches her sis in the arm then turns to see a fox with golden-yellow fur and two tails descending the stairway up to his workshop. He has sky-blue eyes that always observed machines with the most curious of interests, and his golden-yellow fur was only interrupted by a large patch of cloud-white fur on his chest, around his muzzle, and at the tip of both of his large, fluffy tails. Tucked under one arm was an Ex-Gear board as yellow as its owner, and modified to be superior to anything found in a store, the "Yellow Comet." This was the 12-year-old, kid-genius, Tails.

Tails tosses his board over to the side, where it began to float several inches above the ground, and walks up to Amy and Dusk while exclaiming, "Morning girls!"

Both Roses giggle at the fox's high-spirits and give him a hug each while replying with "Good morning Tails."

"You two going to use your skates?" Tails asks after backing away a little.

"Did you think I was going to use anything else?" Dusk asks while raising an eyebrow, using a voice that carried over a little attitude.

Amy gives the purple hedgehog another little punch while mumbling, "Dusk..." She then turns to Tails and asks, "Yea, I actually find skates a lot more fun than boards. So how have you been?" before reaching out and ruffling Tails' hair a little, "Ready to turn thirteen?"

Tails chuckles a little before pushing her hand away, "Come on Amy, my birthday isn't for another week."

"I'm sorry that Shadow and I will have to miss it." Dusk says, her voice carrying a tone of disappointment, "We're leaving in a couple days and won't be back until after your birthday passes. I promise though, I'll be sure to get ya a nice little something."

Tails chuckles a little more before hearing the distinct hum of running Ex-Gear. The three turn to see three other forms approaching. One was driving a red Ex-Gear bike, named the "Red Mountain", and had red fur, purple eyes, spiked gloves, and his hair down in dreadlocks. Even though it wasn't visible, he had a white patch of fur on his chest in the shape of a crescent moon, and his tail also had something of a kink in it. This was Knuckles, the 16-year-old echidna who guarded the Master Emerald on Angel Island.

The next was on an Air-Ride model of Ex-Gear, which required the rider to lean forward while grasping a pair of controls, with the name of this particular machine being "Flower Sail", and was several years younger than Knuckles. She had soft, cream-colored fur and darker, more orange patches were around her eyes, at the end of her long ears, and on the crown of her head. She had orange eyes and a face that none could say wasn't cute. Cream was her name, an 11-year-old rabbit and was best friends with Amy. Normally she'd be wearing a orange dress, but today she was in orange shorts and had a soft-white T-shirt on and clinging to it was a small, blue and yellow creature...her chao friend, Cheese.

The last one was on a board named "Winged Heart" and she had a very attractive body. Her slender legs were in a pair of pants similar in shape to Dusk's, but were pure black apart from a faint pink heart over her right ankle. Her ample chest was contained in a tank-top of equal blackness, and both kept her decent while showing a teasing glimpse of what was underneath. Her soft-gray fur was only visible on her head, and normally her face would have plenty of make-up on, but due to the race she only put on a little ruby-shaded lipstick. Rouge, the lovely, 17-year-old top spy for GUN, flexed her bat wings as she and the others approached.

The three slow their gear down to a stop, park them beside Tails', and walk up to their waiting friends, with the six bidding one another a good morning.

"So Knuckles, not to sound upset or anything but...shouldn't you be back on Angel Island?" Dusk asks.

"Well...I...uhhh..." The echidna begins to stutter, but Rouge answers Dusk's question with, "Actually, Knuckles spent the night in my guest room."

Amy's eyes grow wide as she releases an 'Ooo', "Knuckles, you got to sleepover at your girlfriend's house?"

"What?!" Knuckles shouts, his cheeks starting to glow red, "N-No...I-I...it wasn't like you're thinking!"

Rouge begins to laugh, "Knuckles is telling the truth Amy. He got so tired after our date at the carnival last night that he practically collapsed after walking me home. I took him inside and set him up in the guest room. It wasn't that big of a deal, and it was actually easier for us to get here." She then tosses her arms around Knuckles and gives the echidna a tender hug, pressing her cheek against his, "When I saw him collapse on my doorstep, I couldn't just drop him back at the shrine. And it was fine, the GUN troops are going to guard that jewel until midnight tonight, so its still safe and sound."

Knuckles' cheeks quickly turn a bright shade of red as Rouge holds onto him, getting the other four to begin snickering, only holding back their laughter because of Knuckles' tendency to hold grudges and hatred of being laughed at.

"So Cream," Amy says after several snickers, "How have you been?"

Cream shrugs, "I've been doing okay Amy. Cheese is doing okay too, but Chocola wasn't feeling well so he had stay with my mom."

"Aww...poor little guy." Dusk says, "You be sure to give him an extra hug for me when you get home, alright? I'll swing by when I get a chance to say hi."

Cream smiles at the purple hedgehog and replies, "Thanks Ms. Dusk. You're so sweet."

"I'd have to agree with that." came a dark voice from the roof of Tails' workshop. The group of six looked upwards to see a figure suddenly leap off the roof and fall towards them. After falling a ways, it pulled off several front-flips before gracefully landing on its feet, revealing that it was actually a male hedgehog.

He had six quills coming off the back of his head that had bent tips, and his fur was a shade of ebony-black, but he also had several crimson red markings on his quills and extending up from his wrists and ankles. His muzzle was deeply tanned, there was a large, fuzzy patch of white fur on his chest, and clasped over his wrists and ankles were golden bands that kept his Chaos Energies in check. This was Shadow, the Ultimate Life Form created over fifty years ago, although he wasn't that old biologically. When created, he was at the biological age of roughly 18, and after spending fifty years in cryogenic suspension, he's still 18.

"Shadow!" Dusk exclaims before jumping forward and grabbing her boyfriend in her arms.

"Its nice to see you too Dusk." Shadow replies as she nuzzles her cheek against his shoulder. Upon realizing that she wasn't going to let go soon, he cleared his throat to get the message across...he wasn't fond of getting affection when others were around.

Suddenly remembering her boyfriend's little...affection perk...Dusk quickly drew away and blushed a little, but a laugh draws everyone's attention. They all turn to see another male hedgehog leaning coolly against a nearby tree. He looked very similar to Shadow, but his quills weren't bent, and his fur was the purest shade of blue that could be found. On his chest was an oval of fur that was the same color as his muzzle, a shade of pale tan. This was the famous, 17-year-old hero, Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Shadow, when are you gonna let the lady love you while we're around?" he asks before zooming up to the crowd, "Seriously, its nothing to be ashamed of."

A squeal is heard as Amy jumps forward and catches Sonic in a large hug. The pink hedgehog nuzzles just underneath Sonic's chin and gets the blue hedgehog to laugh as he strokes her quills, "See? I don't mind when Amy cuddles up to me."

"Yes, but you're you." Shadow replies in an irritated tone. Sonic still got on his nerves despite the two spending more time in each other's presence...they had to since their girlfriends were sisters...but kept that time to as much of a minimum as possible.

"Come on guys, don't start." Rouge says. She had let go of Knuckles when Shadow arrived, but kept his hand in hers.

Shadow grunts and crosses his arms in wordless acknowledgement, but after glancing at Dusk, and seeing a slight pout on her face, sighs and says, "Alright..."

Dusk smiles and quickly catches Shadow in another hug, sighing as her cheek falls into his chest tuft.

"Its nice to see a little love in the air," stated a new voice, getting the crowd to turn and see the last two of their friends standing there.

One of them was a third male hedgehog, but this one was fairly different from Sonic and Shadow. This one had silver fur and a large, V-shaped mane of fluffy white fur around his neck. His hands were in gloves that had a large, futuristic looking cuff on them and instead of sneakers, this hedgehog wore a pair of blue and black boots with a large, golden clamp at the top. He only had two quills growing out from the back of his head, and those were very large, but also had five shorter quills the grew upwards like a crown. He was Silver, a psychokinetic 16-year-old hedgehog, and hovering quietly at his side was his Air Ride Ex-Gear, "Psychic Wave".

The other was a cat who had soft lavender fur. She normally wore elegant purple robes and slimming white pants, since she was a princess after all, but for today's race she opted for a less constricting royal-purple T-shirt and looser soft-gray pants. Still present though was her fuzzy cuffed gloves and socks and her pair of light red high-heels (although they were a bit shorter). In the middle of her forehead was a bright-red ruby and her hair was drawn upwards and clasped in a shiny red hairband. She was Blaze, the 17-year-old princess and guardian of the Sol Emeralds, and by her side was a sleek purple Ex-Gear named the "Flame Spear."

Blaze was the one who had spoken, and she continued by saying, "Well, now that we're all here, shall we begin the race?"

The rest of the group nod and all line up, with those needing to use Ex-Gear boarding theirs. "Alright guys, you remember the finish line?" Sonic asks, using a voice that was loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Yup!" Silver replies, "The fountain at Aquanos' plaza."

"Alright then...three...Two...ONE...GO!" Sonic yells. In that instant, everyone shoots forward at high speeds all heading for the faraway city of Aquanos.

They all stay in (more or less) a tight group for the first fifty miles, but then, Dusk slowly begins to pull ahead. She's not the only one though...Rouge, Shadow, and Silver also start to gain a lead. Then...Dusk decides to pull off one of most ambitious stunts yet.

She gets a quick burst of speed to get enough room, then spins around and begins skating _backwards_, looking at her friends with a confident smirk, one eyebrow raised and her arms crossed.

"What now guys?" She asks, "I'm matching you're speed while skating back-WHA!" Dusk suddenly begins to fall over backwards (or is that forwards?), but it was just a ruse. She jutted her hand out above her head, planted it onto the ground, then catapulted herself forward while twisting in the air to re-orient herself.

As she came down feet-first from this jump, the force pressed her skates down closer to the ground, and she used the burst of her skates jutting back up to shoot far ahead of her friends, laughing and yelling "I dare you to try and catch me!" back to them.

While most of them broke off into groups to begin drafting behind one another, Shadow kept by himself and forced his air-skates to speed up. Slowly he began to catch up with his purple-furred girlfriend, eventually reaching her around the 125 mile mark.

"Ha!" He proclaims just before reaching her, "Almost got ya!"

Dusk glances over her shoulder and gives her boyfriend a challenging smirk. "Almost isn't good enough Shadow!" She yells before doing another boost and pulling away from him. Determined to not be outdone, Shadow also forces himself to speed up and almost catches Dusk again, roughly fifty miles from the outskirts of Aquanos.

Aquanos is a very, very beautiful city on the coast with nearly everything relying on water, hence the name. The city was completely powered by several oceanic power plants which caused no pollution, and alongside beautifully paved sidewalks flowed shallow streams that the city's futuristic gondolas used to get around. Criss-crossing around the sleek buildings were water tubes that funneled the water around, but since they were created out of clear plastic, it looked as though the water was twisting around the buildings on its own. The city's most beautiful feature though was its huge fountain in the main plaza. It stood fifty feet high, had water cascading beautifully down its sleek column-like shape and resting at the very top was a flawless glass sphere that had water flowing inside of it which eventually reached up to the top and down the sides, clinging to the sphere until it reached the column.

Dusk quickly sped through the streets of Aquanos, swerving around the people and occasionally skating by the gondolas, determined to get to the fountain before Shadow got there or caught her. Once the central plaza came into view she used the lifting power of her skates to slow down enough to avoid going for a dunk in the fountain.

She does stop before going into the fountain, and Shadow does too...well, almost. Dusk stopped right at the edge of the fountain and Shadow manages to stop just behind her...but accidentally nudges the currently unbalanced girl in the back. This nudge tipped Dusk forward just enough for her to go toppling into the fountain with a shriek, but in a desperate attempt to stop that she shot a hand behind her and grabbed Shadow by the shoulder, thus pulling him in as well.

Both hedgehogs land in the fountain with a loud splash, just as the rest of their friends arrive. Upon seeing the two in the fountain, now soaking wet from the flowing water, all of the dry Mobians burst out laughing.

Dusk glares at her friends with a completely unamused face before spitting out a little water that got into her mouth. "This isn't funny." she said seriously, glaring at her friends.

"Oh, but it is." Amy replies clutching her stomach from laughter.

"Stop laughing and help me out." Dusk states, extending a hand. Amy sighs and grabs her sister's hand, but in an instant, Dusk gets a devilish smirk and yanks Amy into the fountain with her.

Amy's scream is only audible for a second before a loud splash, leaving the pink hedgehog just as soaked as her sister. "Dusk!" Amy yells before glaring at her sister, who was know laughing as hard as Amy was.

"Now _that_ is funny." Dusk says between her laughs. Amy was glaring at Dusk, but after a couple seconds, her face softened and soon, Amy was laughing right alongside Dusk.

"Alright you two." Blaze says holding out her two hands, "Lets get you two out of there and into some dry clothes."

"How?" Dusk asks while grabbing one of Blaze's hands and getting up, "Home is really far away and our skates won't work until they're dry."

"There's a clothing store not too far from here." Amy says while also accepting Blaze's help, "We can get some new clothes there."

Dusk, now on dry land, shrugs. "Sure, why not? We'll meet up with you guys here in a few hours." she says before departing with Amy, Cream, Cheese, Rouge, and Blaze for the clothing store, leaving Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, and Silver with a couple hours to burn. Their first of many stops was The Brawler, a large arcade that mainly featured fighting games, hence the name.

Two hours pass before the guys return to the plaza, curious as to whether the girls were done or not. The girls showed up roughly a minute after the guys, with a very different looking Amy and Dusk with them.

Amy's normal wide-bottomed, dress was now replaced with one that still begin to go outward at waist level, but went down at an angle that kept it closer to her legs and it ended at knee level, and clasped around her waist was loose white belt that was tilted at an angle. The upper part had also changed, since instead of closing around her neck, it ended at roughly chest level and tightly held on just below the arms. As a result, her shoulders were now bare as was the upper-most area of her chest which allowed for a glimpse at her pretty good size. She was still wearing the same color scheme though, deep red with a white border at the bottom, and her skates were replaced with a pair of red and white sneakers. She looked amazing, espically with the ring of pearls around her neck.

Dusk had gone through a similar change. Her long pants were still there but were now stripe-less. Falling over her pants was a skirt that matched her fur color, gently staying close to her legs until it stopped, roughly halfway to the knee. Her T-shirt was gone, replaced with a top similar to Amy's although hers stopped just a little bit lower than Amy's in the front, dropped down to the middle of her back as it went behind her, and was pitch-black in color. It was also cut a bit closer to her body than Amy's and flattered her form better without revealing too much more...although her shadow-diamond teasingly hung above the cleavage she decided to reveal. Her skates, being not that comformtable when wet had been switched for a pair of crimson red tennis shoes with black and midnight blue highlights on them.

The group of females stopped a short ways from the guys, but Amy and Dusk walked up to their respective boyfriends, a slightly curious look on both of their faces. "Well?" they ask, "What do you guys think?"

"Wow Amy..." Sonic mumbles in a stunned voice, "You look...absolutely beautiful." Amy giggles and catches Sonic in a hug, to which he returns.

Meanwhile, Shadow hadn't said a word...which was starting to upset Dusk. "What's the matter Shadow? Don't you like this outfit?"

Shadow finally gave his answer, although it wasn't verbal. Instead, Shadow quickly hooked an arm around Dusk's now well-defined waist and drew her close. His crimson-red irises looked deeply into hers and silently told her his answer a second before their lips connected, locking both hedgehogs into a deep kiss.

After a good five seconds, the kiss ended and Shadow released his grip around Dusk's waist. Dusk gives Shadow a pleased smile while some blush shows up on her checks. "Thanks Shadow. You're really sweet."

Shadow responds by giving her a quick wink before being distracted by a whistle from his rival. "About time Shadow decided to come out of his shell." Sonic says.

Shadow grunts at his rival, crosses his arms, and turns his back on the blue hedgehog...which only prompts Sonic to continue. "Come on Shads, we all saw you kiss Dusk. Just YEEOWCH!" Sonic suddenly yells while leaping ten feet in the air with both hands clenched onto his rear.

There actually was a reason Shadow turned his back on Sonic, so the blue hedgehog couldn't see him silently snap his fingers...and cause a Chaos Spear to appear and stab Sonic right in the butt.

Sonic landed and, knowing full well what Shadow did, quickly leered at the black hedgehog and asked, "You trying to say something?"

"Yea, if you want to get back at me...you'll have to catch me first!" Shadow yells before taking off. Sonic growls for a second before following his rival.

Amy walks up beside Dusk and sighs. "Do you think those two will ever stop irritating the other?" she asks while resting her hands onto her hips.

Dusk sighs as well before replying with, "I doubt it. At least they like our new outfits."

The remaining Mobians decide to leave the plaza to have fun elsewhere in Aquanos, knowing that once they calmed down, Shadow and Sonic would find them.

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Meanwhile, well over three thousand miles away in the secluded Darkspine Mountains, a mountain range of jagged, jet-black peaks that most avoided...a mysterious, evil form stomps across the peak of the tallest one, Mt. Slash; so called because its imposing black form seemed to viciously slash the sky in two. It walks up to a boulder, looks at the huge rock for a second, then aims its left palm at it and firing a powerful laser that destroys the boulder immediately.

Why blow up the giant rock? The answer was the glittering yellow jewel underneath the rock...the yellow Chaos Emerald.

The form reaches down and grabs the emerald with a clawed hand, then wrenches it out of the black rocks before examining it. Then the figure lets out an evil laugh before proclaiming, "Finally...my fourth emerald. Now my newest plan can begin..." it pauses while clenching a fist, "...and I will finally destroy Sonic." it adds before taking off for parts unknown.

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**Oh my god...it feels awesome to bring Dusk back! I've really missed hearing from all of my fans of "Dusk Sets" so I'm eagerly awaiting your reviews, and you know what? If you're a new fan, go ahead and leave your review as well. I accept both positive and negative reviews, as long as the negative comments ARE NOT flames. Also, if you are a new fan, I highly urge you to read "Dusk Sets" or else this chapter (and the rest of the story once it comes along) will make no sense.**

**Alright, just a couple more announcements. One, Aquanos is only partially mine. I picked the name and designed some aspects of it myself, but I borrowed heavily from the Aquatic Capitol level of Sonic Riders Zero Gravity to complete it. Also, I've incorporated the names of three of the top reviewers of Dusk Sets into this chapter. They are The Brawler (The Brawler arcade), DarkspineSilver92 (Darkspine Mountains), and SlashBandicoot43 (Mt. Slash). Thanks for being so frequent with the last story and I hope you enjoy this one just as much as the other!**

**Finally, I'm going to have a little contest...correctly guess who the figure is that took the yellow Chaos Emerald from the mountains, and I'll answer two of your questions about this story. The only hint I'm giving is that it IS an official character. ****Go ahead and guess! There is no penalty for a wrong answer, but please, only pick one character...don't just randomly list them.**

**Hope you enjoyed the start, and believe me, there are going to be plenty of surprises later.**


	2. Starting a Vacation

**Grr...stupid Document editor...it messed up the end note of the first chapter. I re-uploaded a fixed version of that chapter, but it has no real change in content. Oh, and while I'm talking, I know this chapter is kinda filled with romance, but with what I have planned, its better for me to get this out of my head now than save it for later.**

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Chapter 2 Starting a Vacation

Its very early in the morning at Station Square, the sun has just finished lifting over the horizon, and is casting its deep-red and orange rays across the city, creating beautiful sparkles in the windows of the buildings that happened to be in the right place. The clouds above are lazily drifting around in the remnants of the twilight sky, gently nudged by the occasional high-altitude breeze, and down below the leaves of trees softly rustle from a morning breeze. Not a sound is to be heard except for the occasional car carrying someone off to their job.

Suddenly, a purple blur rushes by in the streets, creating a slipstream that sends all of the trees it passes into a frenzy for several seconds before they settle down. The blur weaves its way around the city, swerving around cars and shooting past the rare morning worker. After rounding several corners, the blur launches itself away from the city and up to the top of a nearby hill before stopping, leaving Dusk behind to watch the sunrise.

She sighs at the beautiful sight and sits down on the hill to enjoy it, drawing in her legs and wrapping her arms around her knees. A couple seconds after she sits down, Dusk senses another presence with her and says, "Morning Shadow," aloud.

Like she thought, it was Shadow who had joined her on the hill. The umber hedgehog was standing behind her right shoulder, but upon her good morning walked over to her side and gazed out at the sunrise as well. "Morning Dusk," he says.

"Beautiful sunrise isn't it?" she asks as a stray breeze blows into her face, causing her sleek quills to sway and her T-shirt to ruffle a little. Dusk liked the outfit she created in Aquanos enough to prompt the purchase of several copies, which were now tucked away into her dresser with her original one, although today she decided on the original. Amy did the same with her new outfit, have several sets of it in the closet for her to wear, but keep her old one around as well.

"Yea...although I prefer the night instead of a sunrise."

Dusk giggles a little, "You can't live in darkness all the time Shadow."

"I've never lived in the dark since we became friends." Shadow replies while resting a hand on Dusk's shoulder, "You're the brightest light in my life."

"Aww..." Dusk mumbles while her cheeks begin to glow.

Shadow sits down beside the purple hedgehog and gently moves the hand from her shoulder to around her left hip, drawing her closer to him. While it was true that Shadow preferred to be his unaffectionate self when the others were around, once he and Dusk were alone, Shadow became a pretty warm person.

Dusk complied to his affection by slipping her own arm around Shadow's waist and resting her cheek onto his shoulder. "I love you so much Shadow," she whispers while cuddling up to Shadow, "Kinda hard to believe that when we first met we were always fighting, huh?"

"Yea." Shadow replies before pausing. "So how come you were shooting around Station Square everywhere? You were making it difficult for me to keep up."

"I'm just really excited for today. The only way I could think of burning off all of that energy is to run."

"Today is the day, isn't it?" Shadow asks before resting his mouth just behind her right ear and placing a tender kiss to the base of it.

"Yup...just a couple more hours and we'll be halfway round the world." Dusk replies, enjoying the affection Shadow was giving her.

Shadow grunts to acknowledge her statement and takes a deep sniff of the cool morning air, and notices that there was a faint scent of roses present...and they seemed to be coming from...

"Are you wearing perfume Dusk?" Shadow asks, realizing that the scent was coming from her fur.

"No...You know I don't like to wear that sort of stuff."

"Then why I am smelling roses coming from you?"

Dusk sighs, "Its Amy's shampoo. I took a shower last night and discovered that _my_shampoo bottle was empty, so I had to use my sister's, and her's has a rose scent to it."

Shadow grunts again and takes another sniff. "You know...its not that bad."

"Don't get used to it, I don't plan on smelling like roses all of the time." Dusk sourly replies. She always got a little touchy when it came to make-up and perfumes, and put simply, she flat out refused to put any of the stuff on unless it was absolutely required.

"I'm not saying you should, I'm just saying that its not bad." Shadow replies, placing another kiss to her ear. Almost immediately afterwards, he felt her previously tense body start to relax a little, but there was still a little resistance on the purple hedgehog's part.

To get Dusk to completely relax, Shadow moves his hand from her hip and gently runs his fingers through her quills. After a few passes, Dusk sighs, gives in, and relaxes completely against Shadow, cuddling closer to him and tightening her grip on his waist.

"You sure you want to go on this vacation?" Dusk suddenly asks, "I don't want you to this just for me."

"I'm more than ready for this vacation Dusk. I need some time away from Sonic...badly need it."

Dusk giggles a soft giggle, "Well, one week far, far away from Sonic should be enough. One week away from Sonic and with me...just what you need, right?"

Shadow removes his head from behind Dusk's ear and uses his hand to move her head to face him. "That and..." Shadow's voice trails off, giving Dusk a hint that she quickly takes. In an instant, the lips of the two are connected in a tender kiss, Dusk cradling Shadow's head in her hands, and Shadow's arms snugly wrapped around her waist. After ten seconds or so, their kiss ends and Dusk lies against Shadow, tucking her cheek into his chest tuft and slipping her arms around his chest.

"I love you Shadow," she whispers.

"I love you too Dusk," He replies.

* * *

A couple hours pass and now Dusk is running around her apartment, scrounging together the last things she'd need for her trip, and tossing them into her backpack, which was sitting on her bed. Among the various objects that seemed to be hap-hazardly chucked into the large, sky-blue backpack were a couple different outfits, a map, a digital camera Dusk was borrowing from Amy, and several spare batteries for the camera and the flashlight that was resting in the side pocket.

After a frantic ten minutes, Dusk finally gathered together everything she'd need, zipped the backpack closed and slung it over her right shoulder, then walked from her room to the living room, where Amy was waiting, dressed in her newer outfit.

"Got everything Dusk?" Amy asks. Even though she did her best not to sound upset, Dusk still heard a slight tone of sadness in the pink hedgehog's voice.

"Yea, I do..." Dusk replies before taking a couple seconds to pause, "Aw come on Amy, cheer up. Its only for a week."

"I know, its just...well...I've gotten used to having you around the house, and I really like it! Its just going to be so...lonely again without you around." Amy admits, her head drooping down a little.

Dusk watches Amy for a couple seconds, then walks up to the pink hedgehog and draws her into a hug. "Sure it'll be lonely around the house while I'm out, but you still have everyone else to hang out with." the purple hedgehog says into her sister's ear, "Have as much fun as you can while I'm gone and I'll be back before you know it. Mope around like you are now, and it'll just feel like I've been gone longer."

Amy smiles a little and begins returning her sister's hug. "Thanks Dusk."

"Its what sisters do."

After five seconds, the two sisters separate and leave the apartment together. They walk down the stairs side-by-side before reaching the ground floor and leaving the building, where their boyfriends were waiting. Sonic was leaning against a nearby lamp-post on his shoulder, facing the front doors to the apartment building, and nearby, leaning against the building itself on his back, with closed eyes and crossed arms, was Shadow; a large, crimson red duffel bag hanging from his right shoulder.

"You girls ready?" Sonic asks.

"Yea." Amy and Dusk say at the same time.

"Well. Lets get going. The others are waiting at the park." Sonic replies. He quickly takes off for Station Square Park, followed by Shadow and then the sisters.

The chosen place for good-byes was the fountain in the middle of the park, a large marble centerpiece with water jumping everywhere and surrounded by several two-person benches. Tails was sitting in one bench, by himself, and in a nearby one was Cream with Cheese and Chocola (a brown-toned chao) sitting in her lap. Rouge was standing beside the fountain, leaning against its rim on her hip, and Silver and Blaze were together in a bench that was beside the bat. All of their attention turns to the hedgehogs as they approach, and they all got up for good-byes; which consisted of hugs from Dusk and mere waves to Shadow.

Dusk and Shadow accept all of their good-byes with ones of their own, but afterwards Dusk asks, "Where's Knuckles?"

"I couldn't get any soldiers to guard the Master Emerald so he could come and say farewell too." Rouge replies, "He did tell me to pass on his good-bye though."

"Poor guy...I'll be sure to get a nice little something for him." Dusk mumbles aloud. "Well...see ya guys. Shadow? You ready?"

Shadow nods and begins to walk away from the group when Amy grabs his arm and asks, "You take care of my sister, got it?" in a serious tone, "Ultimate Life-Form or not, you mess with one Rose, you get the thorns of both."

"I'll be sure to protect her." Shadow tonelessly replies before tugging himself free. The umber and purple hedgehogs walk a good distance away from the group before stopping, with Dusk to Shadow's left. She reaches behind him and rests a hand down on his right shoulder while he puts his left arm around her waist and reaches into his quills with his right hand, producing the gray Chaos Emerald as it comes back into view.

"Ready?" he asks.

"Ready." she replies.

Shadow squeezes the emerald and declares "Chaos Control!"

That same, comfortable warmth begins to roll through Dusk as she and Shadow are surrounded by a bright light. Once the light engulfs the two, it brightens and then completely disappears, taking Station Square Park, the fountain, and all of their friends with it. It was replaced by large grassy hills sprawling out as far as the eye could see. The dimmed morning sky of Station Square was replaced with a bright-vibrant sky blue one found past noon and only a few clouds shifted around within the wast blue expanse.

A fresh strong breeze blows its way past the two hedgehogs, filling their lungs with clean air. Dusk lets go of Shadow as he puts the Chaos Emerald back and looks around, her dull-blue eyes almost shining with interest. They had left Station Square far behind them...both were now standing on Japanese ground.

"So Dusk, should we head for a city first or..." Shadow is cut off when Dusk yells, "Are you kidding? I want to explore the countryside first!" and taking off.

Shadow could barely keep the smile down at his girlfriend's enthusiasm and quickly began to chase after her.

It was several weeks ago that Dusk had chosen Japan as the place that Shadow would take her to, and since then and before Dusk had been learning as much as she could. While the technology sparked a little of her interest, it was the natural beauty and ancient shrines that she really wanted to see. Together the two of them settled on a sort of camping trip over to the Land of the Rising Sun...they didn't bring tents or anything like that, but they would mostly explore the countryside and sleep out under the stars, maybe venturing into a city at some point to collect souvenirs.

The two blurs sped across the hills, turning every which way as they went. After a couple hours of random looking around, Dusk finally stopped for a break in the shade of a couple trees. Shadow stopped as well and handed her a bottle of strawberry-flavored water as she looked over the map, trying to guess where they were.

After a couple minutes, Shadow jokingly asks, "So do you know where we are or should I find someone and ask directions?"

"Nah, I'm pretty sure I know where we are..." Dusk replies, sipping idly at her water. She points to a soft hilly area near the middle of Japan on the Sea of Japan side, "We're somewhere here in the Fukui area."

"Now that we know where we are, where do you want to go?"

Dusk's finger moves from where they are to the western area of the country. "Hiroshima." she replies.

"I thought you wanted to see the countryside first."

"I do, but there is one place that I absolutely must see and its right near Hiroshima. I know we agreed to hang out in the countryside, and we will, I just want to see that place first."

"Alright." Shadow replies, "So how do we get there?"

"Well, it looks like we'll have to go through Kyoto first, then there's plenty more countryside...but we should be able to make it before the sun goes down."

Shadow stands up and slips the bag of chips he was eating from back into his bag. "You're the one with the map, lead the way." he says.

Dusk also stands and puts her backpack on, slipping her water bottle into a pouch on the side of the backpack. She folds the map back up and slips it into her pocket before proclaiming, "Try and keep up!" as she began to run off to the west. Shadow allowed her a bit of a head-start before he also started off for the west, following Dusk's trail as he went.

Dusk had been skating at near-max speed for several minutes and was just starting to see the outskirts of Kyoto far ahead of her...but she was more curious as to why Shadow hadn't caught up with her yet. _Ah he probably just let me get a head-start... _She thought to herself. Her thought would've continued, but a sudden grab of an arm around her waist broke the thought and made her yelp a little as she realized she was being raised into the air.

"Relax Dusk." Shadow said as he lifted her into his arms.

"Shadow?" Dusk asked in surprise, "How did...Chaos Control."

Shadow gave her a half-smile to show she was right.

"But why pick me up? I was making good time on my own."

"You're just being sore because I caught you."

"I am not, now let me down."

"Not till we pass through Kyoto." Shadow replies before speeding up, "You might want to hold on."

Taking his advice, Dusk settled deeper into his hold and wrapped her arms around his neck, making sure not to strangle her boyfriend.

Shadow's advice was well-given, not two seconds after he gave it was he bouncing between the buildings of Kyoto, high-above the crowds of people in the they got too low, Shadow would speed up the side of the taller buildings to a reasonable height before leaping away, twisting gracefully in midair, and landing (in motion) on a building on the other side of the street.

He kept this super-ball tactic up for the whole trip through Kyoto, pinging between buildings and masterfully turning in midair as if gravity wasn't affecting him. Eventually the tall buildings became scarce as he got to the other side of the city, as which point Shadow changed his tactic and began leaping from roof-top to roof-top. This he kept up for another minute before leaving Kyoto's west side and finally coming to halt atop a tall hill roughly half-a-minute later.

The umber hedgehog kneels down to lie a dizzy purple one down in the grass and rests a couple fingers to her temple. "Sorry...I probably should've warned you about my idea." He admits, apologetically stroking the side of Dusk's face.

"No worries...that was actually kinda fun!" She exclaims, "I should probably thank you instead...I haven't had my adrenaline going this strong since Eggman was running free...ugh, my stomach's not too fond of you right now, though..."

Shadow sits beside Dusk and rests the hand that was stroking her down on her stomach, feeling each deep breath she was taking and where an occasional angry growl was heard from. "Just relax." he says, "We can wait until you've recovered."

Dusk was going to sit up herself and argue, but the presence of Shadow's hand on her stomach made her think otherwise. Instead, she lifted her head to look at Shadow, gave him a sad puppy-dog look and asks, "If we're going to rest...can I have a pillow?"

Shadow sighs, gets up to move to her head, then lies down. Dusk grins as she crawls over to him and rests her cheek into his chest tuft, smiling as she feels the soft downy fur cradle her head.

Shadow sighs again and gently strokes her quills. "You know I'm spoiling you." he says.

"Yea, I know." Dusk replies before rolling over to face him and planting a kiss to his lips, "You can't help it though, can you?"

"...no."

Dusk laughs her sweet laugh and snuggles closer to Shadow, "Aww cheer up Shadow. How many other guys out there have a girlfriend who put Eggman behind bars? And can manipulate shadows? That's right, none. I'm unique and I'm all yours." The purple hedgehog rolls back over to show Shadow her quills.

_You're definitely unique in most ways Dusk._ Shadow thinks before beginning to stroke her quills again, _There isn't any other girl out there like you...and I wouldn't have it any other way._

The two lie there in the grass for an hour, Shadow watching the clouds randomly drift across the sky and Dusk letting herself calm down, before they stand up and continue on towards Hiroshima at a slower pace, mainly because Dusk was still feeling a little ill. As a result, it took the two hedgehogs an hour and a half to reach Hiroshima and another thirty minutes to get to the coastline. The sun was already beginning to set by the time their eyes beheld the crashing waves, and it was maybe another hour or so before night fell.

"Alright Dusk, where exactly is this site of yours?" Shadow asks, looking around but seeing nothing but modern harbor.

"Its on a small island just across this inlet." Dusk replies, "Would a small Chaos Control be too much to ask?"

Shadow places a hand on her shoulder before declaring, "Chaos Control!" and teleporting the two of them across the inlet and onto a smaller island. Being smart, Shadow placed the two of them on the roof of one of the buildings, removing the chance that they'd appear in someone's way.

"Thanks Shadow." Dusk says before leaning in and planting a small kiss on his cheek, "Sorry to ask so much of you in one day, but we can relax for now...the place I want to see is best viewed just before night."

"So what did you want to do until then?"

Dusk strolls over to the edge of the building, sets her backpack down by the rim then sits down and reclines against the same rim. "I'm going to chill out until the sun has gone down some more. Feel free to join me Shadow."

Shadow shrugs indifferently before walking over to the rim as well. Like his girlfriend did, Shadow sits down and reclines against the concrete railing, only he closes his eyes and lowers his head...giving the impression that he was sleeping.

After maybe forty-five minutes of resting, the sun has gone down enough to effectively border on night. The sky's afternoon reds and oranges were replaced with deep purples and the clouds turned from a bright white to a darker one. Once she becomes aware of the time, Dusk stands up and wakes Shadow who had dozed off.

"Hmm? What?" He mumbles while opening his eyes.

Dusk giggles, "Come on sleepy-head, its time to go."

While Shadow gets up and stretches, Dusk quickly puts her backpack on before hurrying towards the edge of the building. "Hurry up!" she calls to him, "We'll miss it if you dawdle any longer!"

Shadow rolls his eyes and follows Dusk along the rooftops of the buildings. Oddly enough, it appeared as though she was heading for the coast...what in the world could be there?

The two hedgehogs sprint across the rooftops before finally descending to the ground, at which point Dusk uses her skates to hurry towards the beach...and giving a groggy Shadow a run for his money. Finally she stops on the beach in front of a large temple-like building built in typical pagoda-style design.

Shadow coasts to a stop beside the purple hedgehog and asks, "Alright, so what's so fascinating here? The temple?"

Dusk shakes her head. "Nope, its that." She replies while pointing towards the water. Shadow followed her finger to find something that surprised even him...

...it was a gate. A large gate that was sprouting straight up out of the water. It was dark and Shadow couldn't pick out all of the details, but there was still enough light to see that the gate consisted of two large pillars at both ends, with two smaller pillars on each side of the large ones. All of the pillars including the large portion up at the top and another connector slightly below the upper one were a red color and the shingles above were black with a faint silver lining at the very top. There seemed to be some kind of symbol on a plaque or banner hanging from the 'roof', but Shadow was unable to see it due to the dimmed lighting.

Despite not being able to pick out every feature of this gate, Shadow had to admit that there was something interesting about seeing a gate standing out in the middle of the water. It seemed to give off this almost ghostly vibe...just standing out there with no land anywhere near it...it was a little spooky, but nothing the black hedgehog didn't shake off.

"So you brought me out here to see a gate?" he asks after observing it a little.

"Yea, but this is the torii for the Itsukushima shirine." Shadow looks at Dusk with one eyebrow raised. "Its the gate for a shrine dedicated to the three Japanese goddesses of the sea, and one of the most viewed gates in all of Japan."

Accepting Dusk's explanation, Shadow turns back to the gate, but is soon aware that Dusk had set her backpack down on the sand and had dug out the camera. "We're taking pictures?"

"You thought we weren't? I at least want one of us in front of this torii."

Shadow sighs and places his bag on the sand as well then follows Dusk out closer to the water's edge. He noticed that she left the camera on her bag, but assumed that she set the timer on it.

She stops the two of them just out of reach of the waves, then takes control of her backpack's shadow that was left a safe distance from the ocean. With the gentlist of motions, Dusk manages to lift the camera up to a nice height and get her aura-aurrounded hand behind Shadow. "Smile Shadow! The camera's timer will go off in a few seconds!" She cheerfully says while leaning against Shadow so their shoulders are touching.

The purple hedgehog puts on a cheery smile and winks her right eye closed before the picture is taken, and Shadow gives a rough half-smile. The flash erupts from the camera and captures the moment in its memory, a beautiful image of Dusk and Shadow with the mystical sea-borne torii behind them, its colors suddenly vibrant from the camera's light. Dusk was tilted slightly so her shoulder was resting against Shadow, and her left arm was behind Shadow to hid the aura signifying the use of her umbrakinesis. Shadow's right hand had found its way to her right hip a second before the picture was taken, showing evidence of his warmth towards the purple hedgehog that was against him.

"Alright, the picture is taken." Shadow says, getting ready to head off to find a place to sleep. He's suddenly pulled backwards though and quickly finds his eyes mere inches from Dusk's.

"This is a thanks for taking me here," she slyly says before locking them into a kiss. To deepen the kiss, Dusk presses her body against Shadow's, fitting nicely against him, and she wraps her arms around his neck. Deciding to play along, Shadow slipped his arms around her sides, cradling her slender figure as Dusk leaned forward and kicked one foot up behind her. The two stay in that embrace for a few seconds before something draws Shadow's attention...

...a camera flash.

He ends the kiss and pulls his head away enough to look into Dusk's eyes. "You took a picture of us kissing?" He asks, somewhat annoyed at her idea.

"Yea...is it so bad that I wanted to capture the moment?" She asks in reply, and upon noticing his annoyed look was still present, adds,"Relax, I'm not going to show that picture to anyone."

It manages to at least soften Shadow's look, which was really what Dusk expected. She plants a quick kiss to his cheek before pulling away, saying "Come on Shadow, don't tell me you didn't enjoy that." as she heads back to their bags.

A grunt is her reply.

Dusk rolls her eyes, switches off the camera, and puts it away, but is distracted by something before she puts her backpack back on. Barely a yard away in the sand, something was glowing in a faint light. "Hey Shadow!" she calls to him, while she hurries over to the glow, "Come over here!"

"What?" Shadow asks, quickly reaching her side.

"There's something just below the sand..." Dusk mutters, kneeling down and brushing away the sand, eventually uncovering what looked like glowing purple glass.

"A Chaos Emerald?" Shadow suggests, now also helping in the excavation.

"Try Sol Emerald." Dusk corrects after a few seconds of digging. She reaches down into the small hole and wrenches the purple Sol Emerald free. "Looks like we've..." her sentence ends abruptly with a grunt as Dusk begins scratching at one of her quills.

"Something wrong?" Shadow asks, curious at this random behavior of Dusk's.

"My quill suddenly got real tingly...eh, I'm probably just tired. Come on, lets go find a place to sleep." she finishes while slipping the new emerald into her pocket. It only takes the duo a minute to return to their bags, put them on, and take off.

After several minutes, the two pass through the town and into the forest behind it. They find a tree with plenty of cover nearby and decide to sleep there for the night. Shadow lies down on his back, resting his head against the tree's trunk, his bag resting at his left. Once he was comfortable, Dusk laid down on his right, tucking her cheek into his chest tuft and sighing as an arm went around her. "G'night Shadow." she says with a yawn.

"Night Dusk." Shadow replies, shutting his ruby eyes and allowing sleep to overtake him. In just a couple minutes, both hedgehogs are napping peacefully under the tree...well, Dusk was. Shadow was sleeping peacefully as well, for awhile at least. Then, suddenly sensing a presence, Shadow quickly awoke as one ruby eye shot open and looked around.

There wasn't anything around him but his bag and Dusk. No animals, no Mobians, no humans, and yet...he was sure he sensed someone nearby for a split-second...someone familiar...like an old friend he hadn't seen in awhile. He was a little unnerved, but shrugged it off, shut his eye, and went back to sleep...but tightened his hold on Dusk, just in case.

**

* * *

**

Okay, first off, I do indeed know what I'm talking about. There is actually a gate like that in Japan with the same name that Dusk used and yes, torii is the right word for a Shinto shrine's gateway. Also, I do have a plan for this segment of the story, so do bear with me. It may seem a little un-original to send them off to Japan, but I know what I'm doing and its a surprise.


	3. The Sakura Spring

**Once again, another somewhat "lovey" chapter, but again I'm getting it out now. Oh, and a neat little surprise should come along with next chapter! Just a notice!**

* * *

Chapter 3 The Sakura Spring

Its just a little before noon today on the fifth day of Dusk and Shadow's week-long vacation, the sky is clear, but not a bright vibrant blue, instead being a little more dull than usual. A couple clouds drift around, and one particularly lazy one happens to be blocking the sun, providing a shield from the sun's heat.

Far from any city, in a small clearing in one of Japan's mainland forests, a loud yell rings out before being followed by a grunt. A couple seconds later, another yell and another grunt are heard. The yells were coming from Dusk, who was throwing punches at Shadow, who grunted whenever he blocked one of his girlfriend's attacks. They weren't mad at one another, far from it, the two were actually honing their fighting skills and really just burning time. There wasn't a need to fight anymore, since Eggman is still in jail, but Dusk and Shadow still got a good workout by training, and it was one of the few things that Dusk could do with Shadow without dragging him along. She found out how difficult that was two days ago when she decided to get the souvenir shopping over with...until she mentioned their special beach picture, she had a better chance of inheriting Rouge's jewel collection than getting Shadow to cooperate. Afterwards though, only a word had to be uttered to make Shadow move.

The purple hedgehog yells again while spinning around, trying to slam her heel into his side. Shadow, instead of choosing to block the attack, hops backward to dodge, then leaps forward to try and score a hit with his fist. Dusk smirks at him before curling out of the way and tripping the black hedgehog.

Shadow lands face-down on the ground with a loud grunt, and before he can get up, Dusk pins him to the ground under a shadow-tentacle from his shadow. He strains to get up, but the shadow was too much. "Cheater." Shadow grunts from under the black restraint, "We agreed, no powers."

"Aww...come on Shadow," Dusk replies. "Don't tell me the ultimate life-form can't get out of a pin."

Shadow tries again, but still fails. "This isn't a normal shadow-tentacle, is it?"

"Well...it may be getting a little boost from our Sol Emerald..." Dusk innocently replies.

"Alright, fine...if we can use our powers...Chaos Control!" In an instant Shadow vanishes, causing the restraint to crash to the ground. Before Dusk could react, Shadow appears behind and kicks her away.

With a gasp that was more surprise than pain, she gets sent flying away, then gets sent in another direction after Shadow Chaos Controls in her path and kicks her away again. This time, Dusk does crash into the ground...or more accurately, a bare patch of earth, kicking up a dust cloud that shrouds her from view.

A little coughing is heard from within the cloud as it settles, leaving Dusk behind with browned fur instead of purple. Her T-shirt and pants were covered in mud (formed from the disgusting mixture of dirt and sweat) and there was a tear in the side of her shirt. Her white gloves had turned brown, as did the cuffs of her socks. The hedge-girl coughs some more before looking down at herself and gasping. "Shadow!" She yells, "What's the big idea? Tossing me into the dirt and coating me in dust and grit?"

"Hey, you allowed powers and it wasn't my intention to send you over there."

"We'll discuss this later, right now, I need to find a way wash this junk out of my fur." Dusk sternly says, "You're going to help. Get the bags."

Shadow sighs before walking over to their bags, then slings Dusk's backpack over his left shoulder, and his duffel bag over his right, before following Dusk into the forest, in search of some source of water. Dusk wasn't hoping for anything more than a stream, but what she and Shadow found after ten minutes of searching was much more than that.

They discovered a hot spring. A nice, large, oval-shaped hot spring at the base of a large hill. Up against the rock face of the hill was a hole where the water was cascading out, forming a small waterfall before splashing down into the spring below and opposite the mini-waterfall, the water flowed away down a shallow stream. The two could tell that it was a hot spring because of the heat surrounding the spring, but luckily it was a comfortable, relaxing heat. One of the most beautiful things about this spring was the trees that ringed it...all of them cherry trees, with their branches coated in the lovely, white and pink cherry blossoms. Every now and then a couple petals were blown off the trees and danced around in the air before settling into the spring, giving the water a beautiful unique element that shined brightly in the sunlight that was coming down, a trait shared by the shimmering trees.

"Wow..." Dusk mumbled, awe-struck by the beauty of the spring. "This is just...its like we've stepped into a painting."

Even Shadow was impressed with the beauty of the spring, and resorts to a simple grunt to agree.

The two stand there and watch the spring for a couple seconds before Dusk suddenly gives Shadow a push back towards the forest. "What are you doing?" he asks.

"What do you mean what am I doing? If I'm going to wash up here, you're not going to watch me change."

"You brought along a swimsuit?" Shadow asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Well...no...perhaps strip is a better word. Regardless of what you call it, you're not watching me, so into the forest. I'll tell you when you can come back in...and don't peek, or else."

Shadow shrugs and moves back into the forest, blocking his view of the spring. Dusk, once confident that her boyfriend wasn't going to peek, began to remove her dirty clothes. She carefully piled them in a way to cover her undergarments, stashed the pile behind some rocks, then lowered herself into the hot water. Dusk couldn't help but sigh as the water surrounded her body while its warmth caused her to both relax and blush.

Once the water was up to the base of her neck, Dusk began scrubbing at the dry mud in her fur and (luckily) it started to come out. It wasn't long before she had to move out of the now-murky water, but she did so by diving underwater and swimming away. After surfacing for air, Dusk got the remaining mud out before swimming over to the waterfall to clean her hair. Once she was absolutely sure that the mud was gone and her fur was back to its natural purple shade, Dusk swims over to another new spot and calls out, "Alright Shadow, you can come back!" after making sure only her head was above the water.

The black hedgehog comes out from behind the tree and smiles a little at seeing his girlfriend purple again. She was floating at the edge of the spring with her back towards him. "At least you're clean again." he says while setting the bags down a good distance from the water, at the base of one of the cherry trees.

"Ha ha, very funny." Dusk replies keeping her back aimed towards him., "Ah...this is so nice."

"Hmm...I'll have to take your word for it."

Dusk turns around to look at him, "Its okay if you get in Shadow, I'm fine with it."

"Its not that...see I..." he stops and looks away, seemingly out of embarrassment.

"Shadow, don't tell me you can't swim." Dusk says with a laugh, "Come on and get in! Its not deep enough for you to drown."

Shadow still seems a little hesitant, so Dusk laughs again and splashes water at him. "Hey!" he yells, the water splashing onto his chest, soaking his fur.

"There, you're wet. Now get in!" Dusk exclaims, "Don't and I'll push you in."

"How?"

"Like this..." Dusk says, but doesn't move. Underneath the water, and out of Shadow's view, Dusk waved her hand a little, taking control of her boyfriend's shadow and causing a tentacle to grow from it. Once it was big enough, Dusk gave Shadow a big shove from behind with it, causing him to topple into the water several feet from her.

He surfaces with a gasp and floats there, glaring at the giggling Dusk. "Aw lighten up. So your shoes will have to dry out before we can leave, at least you're in here." she says, "You can't argue that this isn't relaxing though."

Shadow says nothing in reply, but takes off his shoes, socks, and gloves, then tosses them out onto dry land. Dusk did have a point though, the water was very relaxing as it rolled through his fur, carrying away any dirt that collected there and the heat did help to relax his somewhat sore muscles...the only awkward part (which was a really big one) was having his naked girlfriend barely five feet from him in the same spring, and he was making sure to avoid glancing in that direction.

Dusk wasn't sharing the same awkwardness as her boyfriend. She knew that Shadow wasn't dumb enough to try anything, since the result of that would be very painful for the black hedgehog. Dusk did, however, decide to be a little flirty...she _casually_ lifted herself out of the water a little bit, but it was enough to change the outline of where hedge-girl met water to give a tease at her chest size.

"Yup, this water sure is comfortable." Dusk says to draw Shadow's attention to her, smiling when she noticed the increased redness on his face. "Aren't you comfy Shadow?"

"I...uh...I..." Shadow stutters while turning away, getting Dusk to laugh again.

"What? Is there something wrong?" Dusk cutely asks, pretending to be oblivious.

No response, but a grunt of slight...well, it was hard to tell. It definitely wasn't a 'normal' grunt from Shadow, one that was indifferent or aggressive...instead this one sounded more like he was nervous, almost spooled.

"Shadow?" Dusk asks, now a little concerned.

"Hmm?" he asks, the strange tone still present.

"Is something wrong?"

"You're making yourself visible...can you please stop?" He asks, ending his question in a tone that was a mix of frustration and annoyance, most likely his way of covering up that hint of nervousness from before.

Dusk gasps at the sore tone and quickly sinks again, lowering herself so far that the water lapped at her chin. "Okay Shadow, I'm hidden again."

"Thank you." he says to her, although Dusk was pretty sure she heard "Finally..." muttered under his breath.

"What's wrong?" She softly asks, careful to try and keep from upsetting Shadow more.

Shadow turns to look at her over his shoulder. "What do you think?" he asks while turning away again.

"I...I pushed you too far out of your comfort zone...didn't I?" Dusk asks, after a couple seconds of thinking.

"Bingo." Shadow mutters.

Dusk floats in silence for a few seconds, letting it sink in that she pushed Shadow a little too far. She didn't mean to that, Dusk thought it was just a little harmless joking around...now she went and upset her best friend...her boyfriend. The purple hedgehog sank even further into the spring, so the water was now splashing against her cheeks and batting at the bottom of her nose. _Way to go genius_ she scolded herself, _This was supposed to be a nice relaxing day, and now I've irked Shadow...seriously, way to go._

"Don't blame yourself...you didn't realize it." Shadow says, snapping Dusk out of her self-scolding. "Just think a little more next time...okay?"

Dusk lifts her mouth out of the water before replying, "Okay, and sorry."

Shadow turns around to face her before giving his reply. "Oh no, feel free to flirt again...just not in a hot spring when you're not wearing anything." he says, a mischievous smirk present.

Dusk gives Shadow a friendly glare and splashes some more water at him, getting him to yell and shield his face with an arm. "Creep!" She yells playfully before splashing some more water at him. "Help! Creep!"

Shadow blocks her fourth splash before sending one of his own towards her. She could've blocked it, but instead Dusk dives underwater, swimming away while protected by the water's surface. She surfaces several feet away from where she was, but is forced back underwater when two splashes head towards her. This little game of 'Splash the Hedgehog' continues for the next half-an-hour before the two stop, and Dusk re-surfaces near the water's edge, reclining against the shore. Panting hard from their game, Dusk glances over at Shadow and smiles, her face bright red from the heat and from the exercise. "You satisfied?" she asks between breathes.

Shadow grins and shrugs, earning a stealth splash from his girlfriend.

Dusk grunts. "Is it any wonder why I love you?"

"I don't know, maybe." Dusk rolls her eyes.

A couple seconds pass in silence before Shadow speaks up again. "So...how do you know how to swim? Eggman teach you?"

Dusk snorts, "I doubt that moron can even float, let alone swim. Amy actually taught me."

"Amy?"

"Yup, I learned from my sis." Dusk proudly says, "She dragged me along to the beach about a week before we came here and she forced me to learn how to swim. Once I got the hang of it, the two of us were beautifully flying everywhere under the ocean's surface."

"Hmm...perhaps you can teach me once we get home."

"Maybe..." Dusk mumbles before she submerges enough to hide everything below her eyes in the water. The purple hedgehog allows the warm water to eat away the last of her soreness, then suddenly leaps out of the spring, landing on both feet on the shore.

Shadow quickly turns away and covers his eyes, "Ah!" he yells in surprise, "A little warning next time!"

"Its okay Shadow, you can look. I'm covered up." Dusk says. "Geez, did you really think I was going to get in full view of you without anything on?"

"Huh?" Shadow asks as he turns around. Like she said, Dusk was covered up but not by clothes. Instead, one of her shadows was wrapped around her body. It wasn't any sort of fancy design, just a cylinder wrapped around her from the base of her neck to the halfway point of her thighs, and judging from a strange notch in it near the back of her neck, that was where this shadow's source was. "Well...at least its covering."

"What? Simple not good enough?" Dusk asks as she walks over to her clothes. Reaching into her left pants pocket, Dusk pulls out their Sol Emerald and gives it a little squeeze. Upon feeling its energy flowing through her, Dusk changes the cylinder to a snug fit against her curves and even altering the design of the shadow to make it more alluring.

Around her neck the shadow formed into a snug clasp and from there it released two straps that went down in separate paths before meeting just below the top of her breasts, forming a tall trapezoid that revealed only a teasing amount of cleavage. From there it continued down, covering her stomach and stretching to her sides, but abruptly ending there. The shadow didn't connect in the back until roughly two-thirds of the way down, but from there it stayed looped completely around the purple hedgehog until the halfway-mark of the thighs, where it finally stopped. The only hole from there down was just above her rear, to allow her tail to stick out.

Shadow blushed like mad when he saw her in that alluring shadow-dress, with her fur still wet with the occasional water drop leaping from the tip of her quills, and the purple Sol Emerald in her left hand which was surrounded by a black aura made a nice accessory to her attractive outfit.

Dusk begins to laugh shortly after forming her dress, "I don't think I've ever seen you this red Shadow!" she exclaims through her laughter, "Never seen a lady in a dress before?"

"Never seen a wet lady in a dress that will vanish if she loses focus before." Shadow corrects, his face still as red as his highlights.

Dusk manages to suppress her laughter down to a giggle before walking over to her bag, "I'd better change into some real clothes before you pass out."

Shadow makes a questioning grunt.

"You mean you don't realize how hard you're breathing? Geez you must really be stunned." Dusk says before grabbing her bag and leaving into the woods.

Once she's gone, Shadow releases a big sigh of relief that he didn't even know he was holding in. As the blush fades out of his face, Shadow couldn't help but analyze why he was so distracted by Dusk. Sure she was incredibly hot like that, but he'd never been so drawn to someone that he lost tracking of his own breathing...did he maybe love Dusk that much? He couldn't say for sure...for all he knew it could've just been the heat from the springs making him go all head-over-heels like that. Shadow shook it off and climbed out of the spring as Dusk came back out of the forest, now dressed in her newer outfit, complete with bracelets and pendent, and the Sol Emerald still resting in her hand, although the shadowy glow was gone.

"There, I'm not as revealed. Better?" Dusk asks.

"Quite...and thank you."

"No problem...but I doubt your shoes are completely dry."

Shadow walks over to where his shoes where thrown to and examines them. "You're right, they're still damp."

"Guess we'll stay here until they dry..." Dusk's voice drops off as she looks around at the beautiful cherry trees. "I know! We'll have our own little hanami!"

"Hanami?" Shadow repeats, a blank look present.

"Yea! Hanami means 'flower viewing' in Japanese. Its like a picnic under a blooming cherry tree." Dusk explains. "Its the perfect way to follow-up a soak in the hot springs."

Shadow smiles at his enthusiastic girlfriend before heading over and grabbing his bag. "Alright Dusk, pick the tree."

After a little more looking around, Dusk settles on a large tree with hundreds of bright white and pink cherry blossoms on it. Shadow sat down with his back against the tree's trunk, set the bag down between them, and Dusk sat on the other side, folding her legs behind her while leaning over, propped up on one arm.

Shadow unzips and opens up the bag, revealing all of the edible goods they brought along with them. There was just the basic stuff...bags of trail mix, sandwiches in plastic containers, a couple small chip bags, a few bottled waters, and the like. During this trip Shadow and Dusk had converted from eating three meals a day to periodically eating whenever they got hungry...it was just easier on them to carry pre-made foods instead of having to haul around the ingredients, cooking utensils, and plates.

Dusk helped herself to a turkey and swiss cheese sandwich with a bottle of (what else?) strawberry water, while Shadow took a chicken and muenster cheese sandwich with a plain water.

The two ate and laughed about their fun in the spring while a breeze blew past them, blowing their fur dry. The petals of a weaker blossom would fall whenever the breeze blew, fluttering past the hedgehogs and landing some distance away in the ground or joining a group of its friends in the spring. It was so peaceful...the sound of them eating was drowned out by the waterfall's gentle roar, the wind tickling their fur as it ran past and the beautiful petals that were everywhere...it was almost like they'd entered some hidden world, untouched by anything and everything but them.

Dusk averted her gaze to look out over the spring, smiling as the petals glistened on its surface before turning back to Shadow...just in time to see a whole blossom detach from the tree, flutter down, and rest on his nose.

The ultimate life form looked at the flower sitting on his nose as Dusk held back her giggles as best she could. Rather surprisingly for him, Shadow gently used a finger to lift the delicate flower from his nose and transfer it to rest in the black fur of the palm of his hand. The small flower's whites and pinks stood out from his black fur greatly, but not in any bad way...it was actually beautiful to see the brighter colors against a dark backdrop.

Shadow watched the small flower for a few minutes, before reaching over and setting it in Dusk's fur, tucking it up against her left ear. The blossom looked even more beautiful on her, since the midnight purple wasn't as much of a contrast as his black. The black hedgehog admired his girlfriend for a few seconds before getting up. "Stay there, we're getting a picture of this."

Shadow soon returns with the digital camera in hand, and switches it on. After lining up the shot, Shadow pressed the button, capturing another beautiful moment on digital film. The black hedgehog had lined the camera up so that Dusk was in the foreground, and the petal coated springs rested in the background. Dusk was only visible from the waist up, but her body was beautifully framed by the spring, every single curve of her silhouette was visible and the combination of her purple fur against the blue backing was cute appealing. The cherry blossom sat nicely by her left ear, its petals creeping threw her hair and one of them happened to fall in the same shape as the hedge-girl's eye-blocking quill. Probably one of the loveliest things about this photo was something that happened by accident...just before Shadow pressed the button, another stray petal drifted by and its pink area crossed over her heart while the whiter half reached up and bridged her right iris.

The black hedgehog smiled at the image on the camera's screen, asking "Hmm...I wonder who this beautiful lady is?" as he turned it around.

Dusk smiled when she saw herself in the camera and blushed a little at Shadow's rhetorical question. "Gee, I don't know Shadow. Who could this mystery girl be?" Dusk asks while taking the camera. "She definitely is attractive."

"Indeed...wish I could do this to her." Shadow says while leaning towards Dusk. Before she knows it, Shadow has planted his lips to hers, and was kissing her tenderly, a hand cradling her right cheek. In an instant Dusk was returning it, then she snaked her arms around his neck, rested her hands against his back, and pulled him in closer to deepen the kiss and make it last.

While in their kiss, Dusk felt Shadow rest his free hand against her hip and tug her closer. Soon he did the same with her other hip and Dusk was quickly leaning backwards underneath a forward-leaning Shadow. It didn't take that long for their positions to change...the two toppled over backwards, Shadow landing on top of Dusk while their kiss broke from the sudden landing.

Dusk's eyes opened to see Shadow's crimson red irises hovering mere inches above hers. "Wow...I didn't expect a kiss to do that." Dusk mumbles.

Shadow grunts out a laugh, then notices that something seemed to be off. "Dusk...where's the camera?"

Dusk gives Shadow a sly smile. "If you want to find out, you'll have to explore a little."

Shadow's eyes widen a little. "You put it..."

"No, I'm kidding. Before I started hugging you I had a shadow place it over by the tree." Dusk says, laughing a little in the process. "But don't even think about getting away...now that we're together like this, I'm not going to let you leave until I get another kiss like that." Dusk seductively says before initiating her request. Shadow returns it for several seconds before suddenly breaking away and snapping his head towards the forest on his right. "Shadow?"

Without uttering a word Shadow pulls himself out of Dusk's embrace and leaps onto the top of the nearby tree, still staring off in that direction. From his new vantage point, Shadow saw a small mountain range directly in front of him. _Hmm...strange...that's the same range I keep seeing whenever..._

"Shadow!" Dusk calls up to him, "What are you doing up there?!"

Shadow turns to look back down at his girlfriend. "I...thought I heard something, that's all."

"Like what?" Dusk asks while standing.

"I don't know...it was too fast for me to tell, but I know it came from this direction."

"Well...I didn't hear a single thing, are you sure that you heard something?"

"I'm the ultimate life-form, remember? I've got better hearing than you do."

"Hmm, good point. So do you see what made this 'ghost' noise?"

"No."

"Then get back down here before you fall and hurt yourself."

With a sigh Shadow leaps off the tree, then suddenly vanishes in mid-air. Before Dusk could react, two arms suddenly came around her middle from behind and tighten their grip into a hug. Dusk giggles a little, "You are just filled with tricks, aren't you?" she asks as Shadow nuzzles into her hair.

"Perhaps..." Shadow replies, breathing in her scent mixing with that of the cherry blossom. However, while he was cuddling Dusk, Shadow shot one more glance towards that strange mountain range...he knew for sure that he heard something come from there, and it almost sounded familiar, he just couldn't place it.

_Everyday we've been here, I've felt or heard something strange...no way is that a coincidence, especially since they all seem to come from that mountain range. Perhaps I should..._ Dusk sighs and relaxes onto Shadow, causing a temporary break in his thoughts, _...should check it out tomorrow. We've still got two days here, it'll be fine._

**

* * *

**

Yes, Dusk has done quite a bit of research before she and Shadow started their vacation. Hanami does indeed translate to something like 'flower viewing' and sakura translates to 'cherry blossom'. I've done my homework, I know what I'm talking about.


	4. Rediscovering a Friend

**Alright, time to end this little Japan mini-arc. And what better way than to have a surprise in store? For all of you who are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the figure from Chapter 1, I ask you to be patient for just a little longer.**

* * *

Chapter 4 Rediscovering a Friend

Shadow and Dusk casually stroll through a forest in the hilly region of Japan, trying to enjoy as much of the natural beauty as possible before they had to go home tomorrow. The forest was a little on the thick side, and the only sunlight that was able to reach them was what little managed to slip through the tree-tops. Their bags were hanging from their shoulders, the gray Chaos Emerald was tucked safely into Shadow's quills, and the left pocket of Dusk's pants was bulging from the purple Sol Emerald's presence, she had changed into her last set of the 'classic' outfit she brought with her earlier this morning.

"Wow..." Dusk mutters, clutching her boyfriend's hand a little tighter as he lead the way, "Its so quiet out here. So...eerily quiet."

Shadow says and shows absolutely no response to Dusk's comment...his mind was too busy going over last night's events for him to be paying much attention.

_Begin Flashback_

Shadow and Dusk were camping out in the woods again, not that far from the hot-spring they found earlier that day. It was almost midnight and the two hedgehogs were asleep, Shadow using his duffel bag as a pillow and Dusk using his chest as her pillow. The female hedgehog had nuzzled her cheek deep into that tuft of soft white fur and had one of her hands resting on his stomach while a pleased smile was drawn across her face. Shadow however, had something of a frown on his. One of his hands were resting protectively on Dusk's side and the other wasn't far from his quills, in case the Chaos emerald was needed in a hurry.

Despite Shadow's defensive position, all is calm and quiet save the occasional cricket chirp. Then a faint voice drifts into Shadow's ears.

"...n...op...s..." is all that's audible, the voice was so faint that it barely made Shadow's ear twitch.

A minute passes before the same voice drifts back in, this time a little louder.

"Plea...top it...No...no ge...get awa..."

This time one of Shadow's eyes half-opens. The voice woke him up, but he couldn't tell for sure if it was real or not...it might've just been Dusk mumbling in her sleep. The umber hedgehog forces himself to stay awake for a minute or so, and was just about to pass it off as Dusk talking in her sleep when he heard,

"Why? Why are you..." the voice fades off before its sentence could be fully heard.

Now fully awake from hearing the creepy voice, Shadow lifts his head to look around, wondering if there was some camper out in the woods nearby that needed help. Nothing but silence for a few seconds, and then all of sudden a loud, ghostly scream shoots through his ears.

It was an awful noise, like some cross between a girl's scream and a bird's shriek, and it caused Shadow to leap straight to his feet, whip out his emerald, and start flinging Chaos Spears into the bushes.

His sudden leap had thrown Dusk to the ground, waking her up in the process. Upon seeing her boyfriend aimlessly throwing Chaos Spears around, she freaks and yells, "Shadow! What the hell are you doing?!"

The umber hedgehog stops his random attacks and looks down at the purple one. "I...I freaked because of a nightmare." he lied.

Before Dusk could respond, a faint groaning sound wafts through Shadow's ears, getting him to whip around to the left. A couple seconds pass before he feels a little weight on his shoulder, and upon turning he saw that Dusk had gotten to her feet and was resting a hand there.

"You okay?" she whispers, her eyes full of concern.

Shadow hesitates before answering. He couldn't say that he just heard groaning because Dusk didn't react to it. Maybe he didn't hear the groaning and was just imaging the words and the scream...he wasn't sure if that was true, but that had to be what he told Dusk. "Yea, I'm fine."

"Sure?"

He nods, "It was just about...Maria."

Dusk gives Shadow a calm smile before drawing him into a hug. This wasn't a lovey-dovey hug, just a comforting one, with her arms centered around his chest and her chin on his shoulder. Shadow returns it for a couple seconds before Dusk pulls away and yawns.

"If you're all better now, can I go back to bed?" she asks, "I miss that comfortable pillow you call a chest."

Shadow smiles at his girlfriend and gives her a quick kiss on the forehead before lying back down. Once he's down, Dusk quickly settles back down against him again, sighing as her cheek falls back into his chest tuft.

While Dusk slips back into her dreams, Shadow casts one more glance towards the source of the groan before making a small mark on the ground with his finger to point the way. He was tired of these noises and feelings playing with his mind, he was going to find out where they're coming from tomorrow.

_End Flashback_

That morning he checked the mark and saw that it point straight to that strange mountain range. That was the last straw, he was going to find out what was up with those mountains today. Once Dusk noticed Shadow start off for the mountains, she followed, assuming her boyfriend wanted to get a better view of the surrounding area.

After a roughly twenty minute hike through the thick forest, Shadow and Dusk reach the base of the mountain. As he casts a quick glance up the mountain, Shadow can suddenly feel his quills tingling, which was a sign that something wasn't right. He turns to look at Dusk to say something, but stops when he notices that she was scratching at a quill.

"Dusk?"

"Hmm?" she asks, turning towards Shadow and ending her scratching.

"Your quills okay?"

"Just a little tingly again...I probably just brushed against something in the woods, don't worry about it."

"Alright, so up we go."

"Shadow wait..." Dusk says, getting him to pause, "What we're doing here...it has something to do with those noises that you can hear and I can't, doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"And if I know you as well as I think, you're not going to leave until you figure out what was causing it...right?" This time Shadow nods, getting Dusk to sigh, "Guess I've no choice but to help you."

Shadow gives her a half-smile while saying, "Thanks Dusk." Immediately afterwards, the two begin climbing up the mountain, hoping they'd find something in their climb.

They searched carefully across the mountain face for several hours and find nothing, before finally coming to rest on a plateau that was jutting out from the mountain side. Shadow was sitting down on a large rock, trying to think of where the sounds were coming from, while Dusk was standing a few feet from the edge of the plateau, admiring the wonderful view.

A gentle rippling of green stretched out to the horizon in all directions in front of her, where it returned as the blue sky, marked by several thin clouds that had developed "ribs" from the winds way up there. The view was so beautiful and pure, that Dusk had to get a picture of it.

She managed to swing her backpack around, dig out her camera, and was starting to line up the shot when she suddenly shuddered. _What the?_ Dusk thought, looking around for a source.

She shrugs and tries to line up the shot again when, yet again, she shuddered. This time she didn't have time to look around, almost immediately after that shudder, Dusk felt the ground give way beneath her and gravity performed its nasty work.

Shadow heard Dusk scream and quickly whipped around to look at where she was, seeing nothing but a hole. The umber hedgehog hurries over to the hole and looks down, seeing Dusk sitting upright with one leg bent beneath her. Little else could be seen, since the sunlight didn't go much further than the border of the hole.

"What happened?" he asks, yelling down to make sure she heard.

"What do you think happened?!" she yells back, "I fell!"

"I meant why did you fall?"

"How the hell should I know?!" Dusk yells back, clearly annoyed about falling into this pitfall. "I was just standing there when the ground suddenly gave way and gravity took over! Now stop asking questions and get down here!"

Shadow quickly jumps down the hole and lands beside Dusk, then kneels down to her level. "You okay?" he asks.

Dusk hisses a little before replying. "I think so, but I landed on my ankle when I fell...could you take a look at it?"

Shadow gives quick nod before gently pushing her into a leaning position. He carefully slipped her right leg out from underneath her before lifting up the pant leg and pulling down the sock. "Its swollen, that's for sure." he says while slipping a finger down her sock and gently pressing in various places on the ankle.

Dusk winces as Shadow feels around for fractures. She knew he wasn't trying to hurt her, but her ankle stung enough without having a couple fingers pressing on it. Unknowingly Shadow touched on a very sore spot and caused her to yell out from the stinging sensation.

Ignoring her outburst, Shadow gently sets her ankle down before looking at her, "But that appears to be it. Nothing broken or twisted as far as I can tell." he announces, gently pulling up her sock and lowering the pant leg.

"Sure feels broken..." she mumbles, "Could you help me up?"

Shadow gives the purple hedgehog a smile before slipping an arm under her arms, then lifting her upright. He easily supports her whole weight as she conjours something similar to a walking stick out of a shadow in her hand.

After testing its sturdiness, Dusk leans against the shadow-cane and allows Shadow to remove his support.

"I'm okay," she says after noticing that Shadow still seemed a little antsy, "Now where are we?"

"Hold on," Shadow says before pulling out his Chaos Emerald. He squeezes the large jewel and causes it to glow, lighting up their surroundings with a gray light. Its immediately apparent that the two were in some kind of underground shrine, with Dusk having fallen through the roof. Leading up to the wall that blocked the shrine from the outside were several pillars on both sides of the room, and they also trailed back into the mountain towards a tunnel out. On the walls were plenty of ancient carvings, pictures, and words, but time had decayed them all into illegible scribbles and blurs.

They would've that this was some old Shinto shrine except for one thing...this couldn't have been a Shinto shrine. For one , this shrine was built into rock instead of being built out of wood and tatami mats. Another difference was the style, there was no evidence of all of any semblance to the "pagoda" style of Shinto shrines, and the last difference was that this place was too...perfect. Apart from the time marks on the walls, the pillars will cut perfectly out of the rock that existed there, the floor was scuff free, and if it wasn't for Dusk standing over a weakened support beam she wouldn't have fallen in since the ceiling was one slab of rock too.

Oh, and the odd pedestal about three feet from them was another distinct difference. On the bottom, it was a simple cube, still free of tool-marks, and resting on four small pillars of its own was a four-sided pyramid of some black-metal with a tiny clear point at the tip.

Before either could say something, the gray Chaos Emerald suddenly electrocutes Shadow and forces him to let go, but instead of falling to the ground, the emerald floated over to pyramid and hovered just off-center of its point. After the Chaos Emerald zapped Shadow, Dusk felt the same electrical sensation shoot up her good leg as the Sol Emerald tugs its way out of her pocket, ripping some of the fabric as it does so.

The Sol Emerald joins its cousin over the pyramid and immediately electricity begins to arc between the two jewels. Shadow and Dusk watch in awe as the emeralds zap both themselves and pass the occasional bolt down into the clear tip of the pyramid. After about ten seconds of this light show, a small midnight blue sphere appears between the emeralds, no bigger than a marble.

That changes quickly though...as both emeralds and the tip of the pyramid pass the arcs into the sphere and cause it to grow in size. The emeralds move away as the sphere grows larger and larger, first reaching the size of a baseball, then a basketball, then a bowling ball before finally getting as big as a bike wheel.

The sphere floats there, absorbing energy from the emeralds and the pyramid with its surface pulsing and ripping like some kind of strange liquid. Without warning it suddenly turns neon purple and ejects some figure out before disappearing, the emeralds clattering to the ground...still glowing like nothing had happened.

Shadow wasn't paying attention to the emeralds though, he was more concerned about Dusk who acted as the cushion for the figure that was launched out. The two were lying on the ground, Dusk down on her back, groaning from the impact while the figure lay silent atop her, face-down.

The umber hedgehog rolls the figure off Dusk and notices two things...it had a female shape to it and was clad in some dark-colored full body armor with a couple neon-purple symbols glowing on it. All in all it seemed very similar...then it suddenly hit him.

...Dusk was hit by the Shade, the echidna that helped them defeat her clan's leader, Ix, and stop him from taking over the world. Once Shadow removed the armor's helmet and saw the echidna's orange dreadlocks, which were swept back by a hair-band also marked by a neon symbol, droop to the floor, he was sure of it. Shade was lying in front of him.

Dusk sits up with a groan and looks over at the figure. "Ugh...she must've hit me harder than I thought...for a second I thought she was an echidna." she says, placing a hand to her head.

"Dusk, she is an echidna." Shadow replies, going over to Shade's side and resting a couple fingers at the back of her lower jaw.

"But I thought Knuckles was the last one."

"I'll have to explain later, her pulse isn't steady."

"Then quite jabbering and help her!" Dusk yells.

Shadow disappears for half a second before reappearing at Shade's side, now with the Chaos Emerald in his hand. He lifts Shade into his arms and declares, "Chaos Control!" before disappearing into a light, taking Shade with him.

Dusk was left alone in the shrine, and she managed to crawl over to and grab the Sol Emerald before Shadow reappeared. "Come on." he says as he walks up to the purple hedgehog, "We might as well end our vacation now." he finishes, extending a hand.

"As much as I'd hate to say it, you're right. We really can't do anything with my bum ankle." Dusk says before taking his hand.

Shadow jerks her upright and against his chest before slipping an arm around her waist and declaring "Chaos Control!" again.

* * *

After the warm wave passes, Dusk found herself in the waiting room of Station Square Hospital. The place was deserted since it had just opened a few minutes ago and outside the sky was overcast with gray.

Upon seeing Shadow reappear, one of the nurses, a female human, walked up to the two and asked, "Oh dear...another for an urgent check-up?"

"No. I just hurt my ankle and would like it checked on." Dusk says, pulling away from Shadow.

"Alright dear," the nurse replies, taking Dusk's hand to keep the hedgehog from falling over. "We'd normally need an appointment, but I suppose our doctors will make an exception in this case."

After watching Dusk disappear down a hallway, Shadow walks over to the phones and dials Amy's home after setting his bag on the ground. After a couple rings, he hears Amy answer.

"Amy, its Shadow...look I'm here at the hospital and...no I'm fine...would you please let me finish?!" a pause, "Thank you...now look, I'm here because an accident during our vacation left Dusk with a hurt ankle...Amy!" Shadow pauses and takes a deep breath, "Look, just call everyone else and come down here...what?...no I can't...because I just Chaos Controlled across the Pacific Ocean three times in less then a minute, that's why!...alright...thanks."

He hangs up and moves back into the waiting room, setting his bag at his feet as he plops into a chair. It was true that he had plenty of Chaos Energy to burn, but even with a Chaos Emerald helping it was difficult teleporting across a giant ocean so many times in such a short amount of time, and two of these three trips he had to handle taking another being along with him.

The Ultimate Life-Form sighs as the weight leaves his sore knees, and he closes his eyes to give them a little rest. The next fifteen minutes pass by in what seemed like fifteen seconds to Shadow, and the next thing he knew, he heard a tapping sound just in front of him.

He cracked open one eye and saw Amy standing in front of him, her hands resting on her hips, her left foot tapping impatiently, and one eyebrow raised with a displeased look on her face. Upon noticing Shadow's eye open, she asks, "So what exactly happened?" with a tiny hint of bitterness.

"Dusk and I were resting on a mountain plateau when the ground gave way beneath her and she fell into a cavern. By the time I knew what happened, she had already landed and twisted up her ankle." Amy opens her mouth to speak but stops when Shadow holds up a hand, "Hold on, while we were down there, our two emeralds reacted with one another and an artifact to...and I don't know how...bring Shade back to our world."

"Wait...you mean Shade-the-nocturnus-echidna-girl Shade?" Amy asks.

Shadow merely nods.

"But...wait, I thought you only took one emerald with you."

"Dusk and I found a Sol Emerald buried in the sand on one of the beaches."

Amy stays silent for a bit to let this sink in. Inside of both hedgehogs though was a growing feeling of guilt...Shade had helped them so much in stopping Ix's plans a few years ago, but only wound up getting left behind in the mad rush to get though the wormhole before it shut. What was even worse was that...they didn't even notice that Shade was missing.

Right when then got back, they found that several of their world's months had passed and Eggman was a threat yet again. Immediately they had to begin a new battle with the mad genius and that distracted them from Shade's absence long enough for them to totally forget about their friend.

Amy's face fell when she finally understood that Shade has returned to her 'friends' that didn't even know she was missing. "So...where is Shade?"

"Being checked on by the docs." Shadow replies, "Her pulse was all over the place when she came back, and the girl seemed to be unconscious."

"Even better." Amy weakly mumbled, taking a seat beside Shadow. "Umm...sorry for being irritated with you. I'm just..."

"I know. I care a lot about Dusk too, remember?"

"Yea, I do. I just feel bad for getting so mad at you over an ankle injury when you even said it was an accident." Amy sighs, "So...sorry."

"Its alright." Shadow says before waiting several seconds to continue, "So where's the pest?"

"His name is Sonic." Amy corrects, "And he's been out running for an hour now."

"Hmm." he grunts, "And the others?"

"Everyone but Tails, Cream and Knuckles is on their way. Tails is off at work, I couldn't reach Cream, and Knuckles doesn't have a phone."

Shadow grunts again to show he understood then turned towards the sound of approaching footsteps. Dusk was limping alongside the doctor that checked on her, an adult tiger who seemed to be in the latter half of his life if one went by his graying fur coat.

"Dusk!" Amy exclaims, hopping out of her seat and hurrying over to her sis. "What have I told you about being careful?" she scolds while helping her sister over to the seats.

"Oh yea Amy, like I'm supposed to know that the ground beneath me is hollow." Dusk replies, rolling her eyes and sitting down beside Shadow, hissing as her ankle bumps against the chair leg.

"You're quite lucky Dusk," the tiger said, "If you did fall from such a height, your ankle should've been broken, not twisted. I'm guessing those skates of yours had something to do with cushioning your fall."

"Yet again my skates save my rear." Dusk says, then looks down at her footwear, "What would I do without you guys?"

"So doctor, any news about Shade's condition? The echidna girl?" Shadow asks.

"I'm sorry to say that I have no idea what condition the young lady is in." he replies, "I've been busy examining Ms. Rose's ankle. I will try to send someone out to you who does know something." With that, the tiger turned on his heel and left.

"You okay Dusk? Want me to get a little ice?" Amy asks.

"No thanks sis. The doc said I just twisted a muscle and I'll be back to my old self in a day, providing I don't injure it anymore." Dusk says with a wink.

"Dusk!" yells Rouge's voice, which gets the three hedgehogs to turn towards the front door. Rouge, Blaze, and Silver were all running in.

"You okay dear?" Rouge asks.

"I'm fine Rouge. I just twisted my ankle a little."

"Phew..." Silver sighs, "Amy made it sound like you broke both legs when she called."

Dusk casts a glare over at her sis. "What?" Amy asks, "I was concerned."

Dusk says nothing but give a couple laughs before grabbing her sister in a hug. "Love ya Amy."

"Love ya too Dusk." Amy giggles while returning the hug.

While waiting for the report on Shade's condition, Dusk and Shadow filled in the other four on what happened in the hidden temple, Dusk handed over the purple Sol Emerald to Blaze, and Rouge, Shadow, and Amy told the others who Shade was and about the journey that they went on together.

Roughly half-way through the story, Sonic showed up having gotten a note at Amy's saying she was at the hospital, and the blue hedgehog was informed on what happened before the tale continued. Finally, roughly thirty minutes after Dusk joined the group, another doctor (this time a female raccoon) approaches the group of seven. "Are all of you here to see Miss Shade?" she politely asks.

Upon seeing the seven of them nod, the raccoon says, "Alright then, please follow me." The Sonic crew follows the raccoon down a hallway, up a flight of stairs, and around a few turns before stopping outside of room 105.

"She is in here and is ready to receive visitors, but try not to get her too excited. Her vitals are fine for now, but we're monitoring in case something should go wrong."

"Understood." Sonic says before opening the door and leading the group inside.

Lying in the bed, propped up against a pillow was Shade, dressed in the usual green hospital-gown and a couple electrodes were on her arm, monitoring her pulse and other vitals. Lying in a pile on a nearby chair was all of the parts for her battle suit, the symbols still glowing although faint from the ambient light.

"Hey Shade." Sonic says, drawing the echidna's attention to the group.

"Sonic!" Shade exclaims, happy to see her friends. "Its...wait...who are they?" she asks, pointing at Blaze, then Silver, then Dusk.

The three new mobians introduce themselves, and allow Shade to continue. "Its nice to meet you all," Shade says, "I assume that Sonic and the others who know me have already told you about me. Now Sonic, I was going to say that its quite a pleasure to see you again."

"Thanks Shade." Sonic replies, doing a pretty good job of covering up his guilt about forgetting about her, "So...what's been happening?"

"You mean...you didn't notice?" Shade asks, a little sadness creeping into her voice. "You didn't even notice you left without me...I know its only been about a week but..."

"Whoa slow down Shade." Rouge says, "We...left you behind...two or three years ago now."

"Time flows differently in the Twilight Cage, remember? Three years for you has only been a week for me."

"Yea, right." Rouge says before taking a deep breath, "Shade...look I'm, err, we're all sorry for leaving you behind...its just that after the mad rush to get through the wormhole, we were immediately attacked by Eggman and..." she stops.

"Yea, I get it...you were so busy fighting Eggman that you didn't even notice that I wasn't present, then after the fight, you just totally forgot about me. Right?"

The four mobians who were with Shade all winced a little...she was spot on.

"So...umm..." Blaze pauses, trying to think of a good way to break this awkward silence. "You're an echidna, huh? I thought Knuckles was the last one."

"Forgive me Blaze, but..." Shade looks away, "I'm in no mood to talk about my clan right now."

Blaze's ears go back from guilt, she accidentally stepped on a nerve. However, Dusk tries, "Alright so...what did the docs say about you?"

"They say I should be out tomorrow if my vitals are still good. They don't know why my pulse was so erratic or how it suddenly returned to normal on its own, but I'm fit as can be..." another awkward silence fills the room.

"Could you all tell me about what I missed?" Shade asks after half-a-minute, her voice oddly timid.

The various mobians, except Shadow, give the echidna girl a smile before claiming seats and beginning to spin tales for the next two hours. After the last tale was told, Silver points out something that was weighing on his mind, "You know, Shade's going to need a place to stay."

"I'd offer to let her stay with us, but we don't really have enough room for three." Amy admits, a little embarrassment sneaking through as blush.

"She can stay with me, I've got an open guest room." Rouge states.

"Maybe that's the best option..." Blaze adds, "No offense Shade, but I doubt the palace guards would tolerate having someone like you at the palace."

Shade shrugs, showing she took no offense at all, "Rouge's is fine."

Before another word could be said, the raccoon from before walks in, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but you all will need to leave. The doctors need to run some tests."

"Alright." The crowd says.

"Don't worry Shade, I'll be here around eleven tomorrow to pick ya up." Rouge states before following her friends out.

Shade watches her friends be replaced by a human doctor and sighs. She knew that they didn't mean to leave her behind, and that if they did go back for her then the wormhole would've closed and the Twilight Cage would be their home...but it still hurt a bit when she heard that they didn't even notice she was gone.

She sighs again before holding out an arm for the doctor to take a blood sample. The doctor was impressed, the patient didn't even blink when the needle poked into her arm...but he was oblivious to her other pain.


	5. A Girl's Day Out

**Eh, this is more or less a filler chapter, but this was the only way I could think of presenting some events that are important for the story. Next chapter is when things will pick up, I promise.**

* * *

Chapter 5 A Girl's Day Out

Dusk was lying in her bed, sleeping contently as her body re-adjusted itself to Station Square time. The curtains were drawn over the window and she was nestled comfortably into the sheets of her bed. It seemed like nothing could disturb her dreams...

...that is, until Amy comes in. "Dusk! Time to wake up!" she cheerily says.

Dusk, now awake, rolls over and gives Amy a glare that would've made Shadow jealous.

"Come on, I know you want to sleep all day, but its almost noon!"

Dusk blinks, but apart from that, no reaction.

"Come on! We're going off to the mall with the rest of the gals while the guys hang out at the Ex-Gear park. Sleepy or not you're coming too!"

The purple hedgehog rolls over and shuts her eyes. Being as persistent as she usually is, Amy walks around the bed and opens the window, causing the sunlight to flood into the room. Dusk grunts from the bright light and draws her head under the covers, refusing to get out of bed with the same stubbornness as her sis.

"Dusk!" Amy exclaims while tossing the blankets off the purple hedgehog, exposing her whole body to the light.

"Meh...alright alright..." She groans while opening an eye, "Now get out so I can dress in peace!"

Amy leaves, with a grin of victory plastered on her face, while Dusk stretches out and (more or less) rolls out of bed. After taking about ten minutes to dress herself, Dusk leaves her room and comes out into the dining room, finding a plate of piping hot eggs and toast with a tall glass of milk waiting for her.

"There you go Dusk, a nice little meal to start off your day." Amy cheerily says, "I figure you'd probably want a breakfast instead of a lunch, even though its so late."

Dusk says nothing but shows her thanks through a smile, then quickly sits down to eat. Well, maybe inhale is a better word, since the food and drink vanished within three minutes.

"Geez Dusk, did you bother to chew?" Amy jokingly asks while clearing away the dishes.

"What? I was hungrier than I thought." Dusk replies, "Now what was that you mentioned in my room? Something about going to the mall?"

"That's right! All of us gals are going to hang out at the mall today!"

"Do I have to come?"

"Yes, you do." Amy sternly says. "Now lets hurry! The others are probably waiting for us!"

Dusk heaves a sigh before getting up and grabbing her wallet, then follows her sister out of the apartment and off towards Station Square Mall, a large three story mall that boasts over one-hundred fifty stores, a large arcade, three fountains, five restaurants, and a food court with twenty different stands.

Amy and Dusk reach the mall within a couple minutes thanks to their skates, and find the the rest of the girls were waiting for them outside the main entrance, underneath the faintly tinted glass veranda. On the left-hand side of the group was Rouge, then Shade, who was wearing her battle armor minus the helmet, and then Blaze. Cream was over on the far-right, smiling cheerfully as Cheese and Chocola played overhead, but there was one more girl that was new to Dusk, and she stood between Cream and Blaze.

She was about as tall as Blaze and was very human-like, but didn't quite look like a human. Her feet were in two 'boots' that were deep green and ended about a fifth of the way up her shin, and her legs were in a pair of snow-white long pants. Sprouting from her waist was a dress composed of four flaps that resembled long thin flower petals, with each being snow-white as well, but with a dark-green "V" shape down at the tips, which rested near the ankle. There were two petals sprouting from each side of her waist. Over her torso was a deep-green shirt that totally covered her body, with sleeves that went all the way down her arms and actually continued onto the back of her hands in a point. At the tips of the points and around her neck was golden-yellow "V" as well.

This young girl didn't look much older than thirteen, but had a silhouette somewhere between Blaze and Rouge. Her skin was a paled tan color which gently accented her light sky-blue eyes, and her deep-green hair nicely fell down to her shoulders, with a little spilling over the left shoulder and following the curl of her neck for an inch. The last thing that distinguished this girl was a couple red flower buds in her hair, just above where the ears would be concealed, and they looked very pretty right there, with the petals wide open and a little yellow core in the center of each.

"Huh...who are you?" Dusk asks as she approaches the mystery girl.

"I'm Cosmo," she replies, politely extending a hand, "Amy has already told me about you Dusk."

"She's never told me about you." Dusk states while turning to face her sister.

"So? In case you forgot, we've been kinda busy ever since you came along." Amy replies, folding her arms over her chest. "My apologies for being late girls, hope you weren't bored waiting for us."

"Its alright Amy, we weren't waiting for that long." Blaze replies.

"Blaze is right. But now that you two are here, lets get to shopping!" Rouge exclaims. "I'm ready to get some more pretty jewels for my collection."

"I hope you plan to do it legally Rouge." Dusk states.

"I can't promise you that." The bat replies.

"I'll take Shade!" Dusk yells, grabbing the echidna's hand and whisking her inside the giant mall.

"I call shopping with Cosmo and Cream!" Amy exclaims, not letting her sister's choice ruin her good mood.

"Guess that leaves you and me Blaze." Rouge says. Blaze shrugs and follows Rouge inside, shortly followed by the group of Amy, Cosmo, and Cream.

Dusk continues to pull Shade through the mall for a ways before finally coming to rest outside of a large clothing store. Shade pulls her hand free of Dusk's before asking, "What did you jerk me inside for?"

"I wanted to help you buy some new outfits before one of the others could get you."

"I suppose its alright, but who said that I even wanted a new outfit in the first place?" Shade asks, "I didn't even want to come here anyway."

"Umm, no offense or anything, but in that armor you kinda stand out. Besides you don't really need it, didn't Rouge tell you that I put Eggman behind bars?"

"She did."

"Then there's no reason to carry around all of this weaponry. Come on, if I don't get you some normal clothes then Amy will get on your case. With her persistence, she won't stop until you get a new outfit, and that girl will probably drag you into a dress shop." Dusk states, "So tell me, which would you rather deal with? Peaceful me who's comfortable with anything you like, or aggressive Amy who's going to get you into dresses?"

"You." Shade replies, "You convinced me at the dress part."

"Atta girl!" Dusk exclaims, playfully punching Shade in the arm, "Now come on, lets get you some new clothes." The two stroll into the store, with Shade following Dusk around as the purple hedgehog moved amongst the racks of clothes.

The two work their way to the Mobian teen section of the store, whereupon Dusk begins collecting clothing articles at random. She grabs a couple shirts, a pair of jeans and normal track-pants not unlike what she wore, and a few skirts before handing all of the articles over to Shade. "Alright, now into the changing rooms."

"Umm..." Shade mumbles from behind the small pile of clothes, "Is there any particular idea you have behind this?"

"Just look through these and put on ones that you think would look good together and on you." Dusk replies, leading the echidna over to the changing rooms. "Go on, just pick a booth, close the door and change."

Shade sighs before disappearing into the changing rooms, leaving Dusk to lean up against the wall and wait. Several minutes pass before Shade re-emerges, wearing a deep-red T-shirt and a pair of cobalt-blue slacks, the only elements of her armor that she still had on was the boots, her hair-band, the belt, and the gloves.

"Hmm..." Dusk mutters, observing Shade's attempt. "I really like the red on you, but the blue almost seems out of place against your orange."

Shade shrugs and disappears back into the changing room, returning in a pair of jeans after about thirty seconds.

"Much better." Dusk says. "But...I don't know, something still seems to be off."

"You think so?" Shade asks, looking down at herself. "I don't mean to sound rude, but I really didn't like any of the other clothes."

"Well go and change back into your armor and lets try finding something you do like."

Once again Shade disappears back into the changing rooms, re-emerging after a few minutes. Together the two put back pretty much all of the clothes and go back to looking for ones that Shade would like. Over the next fifteen minutes or so, Shade's new outfit slowly changes until Dusk gives a thumbs-up.

The final product was actually quite similar to what Shade started out with, the jeans stayed but instead of going from waist to ankle, these were shorts that reached from waist to just above the knee. Her red T-shirt had become a scarlet-red tank-top that both revealed a little of her cleavage and a look at her well-toned stomach. Over that went a scarlet-red jacket that has short sleeves and only reached about midway down her torso. All in all, this worked for the echidna girl since it showed off her toned, slender body without being too revealing. Her arms were bare from the cuff of the jacket sleeves down to the cuff of her Nocturnus gloves, a little of her legs were visible between the shorts and her boots, and there was about an inch thick area along her stomach between the tank-top and the top of the belt-like piece of her armor. The last part she had on was the hair-band, nicely sitting on her head and sweeping back her long dreadlock-like hair.

"Nice..." Dusk says. "You're sure to stun the others with that awesome look."

"I'll admit, I was skeptical, but this is pretty cool." Shade says while spinning in place to show off all of her new look.

"Alright, you head back into the changing rooms to get the rest of your armor, I'll fetch more copies of this outfit." Dusk says.

After a minute the two are at the checkout line, waiting for the human girl behind the counter to finish ringing up all of the clothes. "So did the two of you find everything okay?" she asks, sliding a jacket over the scanner before dropping it into a bag.

"Yea, we did." Dusk replies.

Shade wasn't really paying attention, instead she was looking over a little spinning rack that had several accessories on each hook. They were all little wrist-bands, with various designs from suns and flowers to humorous jokes, like one that had a little red and white polka-dotted plant, and the words "Byte me" underneath. Despite all of the interesting designs, there was one that caught Shade's eye, a simple black one with a design that resembled a small teardrop or ember and was a similar shade of purple to that of the symbols on her armor.

After thinking it over, Shade plucks the wristband off the hook and hands it to the girl, "Could you add this too?"

Dusk giggles a little at Shade's actions. "Looks like somebody's starting to grow accustomed to shopping," Dusk says while playfully nudging Shade with her elbow. "Give me a few more hours, and I'll have you loving these mall outings."

"I'd like to see you try. I'm unbreakable." Shade replies.

"Oh believe me Shade...I will break you. I've broken Shadow, so you don't stand a chance." Dusk says, giving Shade a serious glare. A couple seconds pass before Dusk's gaze softens, the two share a laugh, and Dusk pays for the clothes.

Shade slips on her wristband as Dusk grabs the large bag of clothing, the two bid the clerk farewell and venture out of the store and back into the mall. "Alright Shade." Dusk says, stopping in front of a mall directory, "Where to now?"

"Actually, the rest of us discussed having lunch soon before you and your sister got here." Shade replies, "They're probably on their way to the food court."

"Alright, we'll take a short lunch break then its back out to shopping." Dusk replies, making a beeline towards the food court, but stops once Shade grabs her arm.

"I've got a bit of a faster path." Shade says, using her free hand to reach down to her belt. With her thumb, Shade presses a small button on the buckle and the next thing Dusk knew, she and Shade were standing in the food court.

"What...how...how can you Chaos Control?"

"Not Chaos Control, Warp Belt." Shade corrects. "Its Nocturnus technology that lets me teleport short distances with up to one friend."

"Sweet." Dusk says, before getting distracted by a call. She turns to see Rouge waving at the two of them, at a table with Blaze and Cosmo.

"Well well well, look at what the purple Rose made." Rouge comments. "You pull off the hot teen look quite nicely Shade. I'm impressed."

"Indeed." Blaze adds, "I didn't think you could blend battle armor into an outfit so easily."

"Thanks, although it was really Dusk's sense of style that did most of the work." Shade replies.

"Hey all, we're..." Amy's voice cuts off when she sees Shade. "Wow Shade. How'd you create such a fitting outfit?"

"It was me." Dusk says. "Well...I helped. She picked out the clothes, I just kept an eye on the colors."

"Now I'm jealous sis." Amy says, sitting down at the table. Cream takes the seat to Amy's right, as Rouge and Blaze get up to go get their lunch, shortly followed by Shade.

"Guess a great fashion sense is another thing we share in common." Dusk says, seating herself on Amy's left. "Cosmo? Aren't you going to get any food?"

Cosmo shrugs, "I could if I wanted to, but I'm not really that hungry."

"You've eaten already?"

"No, I haven't. I'm from a race of plant-like people, the seedarians. Like the plants here, I can make my own energy from sunlight, or I can eat like you do." Cosmo explains.

Dusk was about to say something else when she noticed that Cosmo's flowers had closed up. "Are those flowers in your hair part of you too?"

Cosmo nods, "They open up in sunlight and close when I'm in shade."

"That's pretty cool. So tell me, where are you staying? Do you have your own house?"

"I'm actually staying in Tails' guest room."

Dusk raises an eyebrow at this. "So the two of you are good friends huh?"

"Well...we're actually...umm..." Cosmo closes up.

Amy giggles a little, "Cosmo and Tails like each other. They're boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Say what?!" Dusk exclaims. "Tails got himself a girlfriend while I was gone? Geez Amy what else did you forget to tell me? That the cure for cancer has been discovered?"

"Simmer down Dusk, I'll fill you in later."

Dusk shoots Amy a stare that said "Yeah right" then turns back to Cosmo. "So if you and Tails are such good friends, why haven't I seen you before?"

Cosmo's mood and face sink at this question. "You probably did and just didn't notice it. Have you noticed that little plant growing in Tails' window?" Dusk nods, "That was me. Its a long story but, in the end...I had to sacrifice myself to save everyone. It was hard on all of my friends and especially so on Tails since he was the one who...had to pull the trigger."

"Ohh..." Dusk mumbles while her ears go back, "My bad, I shouldn't have pried."

"No its alright. You were going to find out sooner or later. Well anyway, after I...died...Sonic and Shadow tried to revive me, but all that they could create was a seed. Tails planted the seed and that turned into the plant that still sits in his window."

"Wait...if you are supposed to be that plant, how are you here now?" Dusk asks.

"Its partially thanks to Rouge, GUN, and Dr. Eggman of all people. Rouge took one of the leaves from my plant, and GUN used that plus Eggman's procedure that led to you, to make me."

"Hmph, at least that ball of fat is good for something." Dusk bitterly says, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring off to the side.

"It wasn't that simple though Miss Dusk." Cream adds, "At first, Miss Cosmo couldn't remember any of us, but then she regained her memories when she touched her plant."

"That's right." Cosmo says, then after noticing the curious look on Dusk's face, "When seedarians die, their memories and personality can be condensed into a seed and stored in the plant that grows from it. Any other seedarian can then take a peek into the memories within that plant, but since I touched my own..."

"Your personality and memories came back?" Dusk suggests.

"Exactly."

A couple seconds pass before Rouge, Blaze and Shade return. While some of the girls were eating, various conversations were being held, which kept changing subject until it eventually hit the inevitable...their boyfriends. Amy bragged a little about how she managed to get Sonic to spend an afternoon at the beach with her, Cosmo talked a little about some of the projects she was helping Tails with, and Dusk told a condensed and edited version of her vacation in Japan with Shadow. When she was done, however, was when the conversation went sour...

"So Rouge, have you and Knuckles gone out recently?" Dusk asks.

"Well...no." Rouge admits, her eyes drooping a little, "Knuckles and I kinda...went our separate ways."

"You broke up?!" Dusk exclaims. "Seriously Amy, what else did I miss? Has life been discovered on other planets?"

"Relax Dusk. Amy didn't tell you because I wanted to say it." Rouge takes a deep breath before exhaling, "It was maybe a couple days after you and Shadow left when I went up to Angel Island. I had made this nice big lunch for the two of us, and as usual, Knuckles was kind to me when I landed. We started to eat, but then halfway through the meal...my eyes drifted up to the Master Emerald."

Rouge closes her eyes, "I had trouble tearing my eyes away, and it was hard to keep from trying to steal that beauty of a jewel. After leaving and thinking it over, I realized that there was no way we could keep dating and I wouldn't at some point try to take it. Knowing that taking the Master Emerald would totally demolish everything between us, which was the last thing I wanted to do, I flew back to Angel Island and gave Knuckles the bad news."

"And?"

"He was disappointed, but understood. We're still good friends, we just aren't dating anymore." Rouge says, poking at her chinese food with a plastic fork.

The next ten seconds pass in awkward silence before Cream suddenly exclaims, "Cheese! Chocola! Stop it now!"

While everyone was distracted by Rouge's story, one of the Chao (it was impossible to tell which one) tried to swipe a cookie from the other. The second noticed this, got mad, and tackled the first...and both were currently wrestling on the table and spelling the remnants of lunch.

Once Cream had managed to pull the two apart, both Chao were nothing short of comical. Some of Rouge's sweet and sour sauce had spilled onto Cheese in the form of a red splotch on his head, and his left arm was sticky from the barbecue sauce of Shade's lunch. Chocola wasn't much better, since he had a portion of Amy's fish from her fish and chips stuck to his chin and a big sticky area on his belly thanks to Blaze's soda that spilled on him.

The other girls did their best to hold back the giggles as Cream scolded her Chao, then dragged them off to the bathroom to clean them off. Once the rabbit was out of hearing range, Blaze states, "Don't tell Cream this, but that was hysterical."

"Tell me about it." Shade says through her giggles, "How often do you see Chao fighting with one another?"

"Rarely, that's how often." Amy says.

A beeping sound distracts the girls from their laughter as Rouge answers her pager. With a groan she closes the device and gets up. "Sorry ladies, but I've got some new paperwork to fill out back at GUN headquarters. I've gotta go."

She walks around the table and grabs the bag full of clothes that was at Dusk's side. "If these are all of Shade's new outfits, I'll just drop them off at my place real fast."

"They are, and thanks." Shade says.

Rouge gives the echidna girl a wink before leaving with Shade's bag and her own smaller one. "So what did Rouge get?" Dusk asks.

"What do you think?" Blaze sarcastically asks.

"Jewels, of course." Dusk says.

The girls clean up the mess that the Chao caused, then patiently wait for Cream to return before heading off for more shopping, their first of many stops being an Ex-Gear store for Cosmo and Shade to purchase boards of their own. Both only bought basic models, since they knew Tails could easily turn the basics into something far beyond that.

* * *

Meanwhile, some couple of miles away at an Ex-Gear park, the guys were enjoying some time to themselves...well, that and laughing at each other whenever one of them crashed. That just happened in fact, leaving Knuckles sprawled out on the ground and most of the others laughing hard.

"Nice wipe-out Knux!" Sonic yelled.

Knuckles groans as he sits up, collecting his Ex-Gear rental board from its spot a few feet away. "I will got the hang of this grinding thing." He says aloud before walking back to one end of the rail he fell from.

"Come on Knuckles, its not that hard." Silver states, easily jumping in the air and grinding the whole length of the rail with ease.

"This coming from a telekinetic." Knuckles mumbles before attempting again. He does okay for about a quarter of the way, then falls again...only this time he slammed a tender area on the bar, causing the others to wince.

Knuckles groans a little as he falls from the bar. "Maybe you should call it quits for today Knuckles. This is almost too painful to watch." Tails says, walking over to his friend's side.

"Eh, I still found it funny, but Tails does have a point dude." Sonic adds. He then notices something a little odd...Shadow wasn't laughing. True it wasn't in the umber hedgehog's nature to laugh, or even smile often, but Shadow seemed to be...out of it. He was just staring off to some point just above the horizon, and was looking there so intently that, for a second, Sonic thought he was hypnotized.

"Hello? Earth to Shads." Sonic says, getting Shadow's eyes to turn towards him. "What's up?"

"I don't know. I've just got this feeling that something is...off."

"Whaddya mean off?"

Shadow shrugs. "Don't know exactly what, I've just got this feeling that something bad is going to happen."

Sonic looks off to where Shadow was staring, shrugged after noticing nothing out of place, and rode off on his board to pull a few tricks.


	6. The Metallic Threat

**Finally! The moment you've been waiting for, the real start to this story! Not only will the mysterious figure from Chapter 1 be revealed, but the true adventure starts here and with one mystery solved two more take its place...you'll see what I mean!**

**Enjoy! Oh, I might as well say it here, I do not own Sonic or any of the other official characters, they are all owned by SEGA. I only own Dusk.**

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Chapter 6 The Metallic Threat

It was a bright sunny day at Central City, the kind of day where it seemed like nothing could go wrong. Sonic, Amy, Tails, and Cosmo were leisurely strolling along through the streets enjoying the sunshine and the peace that Dusk had brought, joking and laughing about the events of yesterday. Their lungs breathed in the reasonably clean city air and each member of the two couples was walking hand in hand. Today was going to be a great day...oh no it wasn't.

In an instant the sky was overcast with gray ominous clouds, and a wind blew into their faces with an almost cruel bitterness in it. Before any of the four could comment on the weather's mood swing, a large crowd of screaming people charges past in the street as an explosion rocks the ground from further on ahead. Sonic quickly took off for it, Amy followed closely on her skates, and she was followed by Tails, flying along with Cosmo in his arms.

The site of the explosion showed strong evidence of the power of the blast, there were a few cars lying on their sides, a few streetlights were knocked over, the windows in the buildings were shattered, and in the middle of the road was a large crater. All of this was mostly unnoticed however, since standing in the crater was a figure that none of them wanted to see.

He looked different from the last time he was dealt with, but only slightly so. His shoes were deep red and had a little curl down near the toe part and over his legs from ankle to knee was a thick cylinder of blue metal. The rest of the leg was a metal pole, which linked into his waist underneath a belt with sharp metal spikes on it. His chest was a compact jet-turbine painted yellow on the inside and blue on the outside, and over his shoulders was two pitch-black shoulder-pads, each ending in a sharp point. The upper part of each arm was another metal pole, which connects the rest of the arm, a boxy piece of blue metal with white markings and hand also made of metal with fingers ending in a sharp point, to the shoulders. His head was similar in shape to a mobian hedgehog's, but again it was made out of metal, only his quills were incredibly long and each had a white stripe centered on it. Inside of the bottomless black of his eyes were two glowing orange pupils and this robot stood slightly taller than Sonic...

...Metal Sonic was back.

"Well Sonic, it certainly has been a long time, hasn't it?" Metal asks in a mocking tone, his deep electronic voice carrying over strong hints of malice.

"Not long enough in my opinion." Sonic growls at his robot double, clenching his fists tightly.

"Come now Sonic, don't tell me you're not happy to see the original."

"You are not the real Sonic!" Amy corrects while forming a hammer in her hand, "No matter what you believe, you're the copy."

Metal shoots her a toxic glare. "I'd keep quiet if I were you." he coldly says, "I don't need a pathetic copy to keep me safe."

"I can keep myself safe!" Amy retorts, "You're the one who should be worried!"

"Perhaps a little pain will teach you to keep your mouth shut!" Metal yells, just before firing a laser out of his left palm at Amy. The burning hot light cut across Amy's left shoulder and burned the hedgehog girl, but it was more of a warning shot since it just grazed her. Despite the near-miss, it still stung...it stung a LOT, and Amy quickly fell to her knees with a gasp of pain as she clasped a hand to her shoulder.

"You leave her alone!" Sonic yells as he ran right up to Metal and slugged the robot in the gut, throwing it several feet backwards.

"What is this?" Metal asks as he got up, "You've never shown concern for the pink hedgehog before."

Sonic growls at the robot before curling into a ball and flying towards him in a Spin Dash. Metal saw this coming and stopped Sonic's attack with one hand before punching the live hedgehog hard enough to throw him into the second floor of a nearby building.

Before Metal could lunge after Sonic, he was tackled by a high-speed fox and knocked several feet away. Although he did his best, Tails just wasn't strong enough to do anything to Metal Sonic beyond angering him...and Metal removed the pest by swiftly backhanding him with enough force to throw Tails roughly ten feet away.

Cosmo was tending to Amy when Tails suddenly landed nearby. Knowing they'd need help, Amy pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and handed it to Cosmo. "Here, call everyone else and tell them to get here NOW!" Amy instructs while getting up.

"Where are you going?" Cosmo asks.

"I'm going to help my boyfriend." Amy sternly says before taking off towards the violent robot. Cosmo watches her pink friend for a second before hurrying over to Tails and dialing the rest of the crew.

Meanwhile, Metal had leapt into the building that he threw Sonic into, had landed several more attacks on the blue hedgehog, and now had the real Sonic by the arm. "Relax Sonic...I'm just going to draw your pain out for as long as possible." Metal hisses into Sonic's ear before twisting his arm behind his back and causing the blue hedgehog to yell out in pain.

"Let go of him!" Amy shrieks as she leapt up to their floor, ran up, and bashed Metal in the head, forcing him to release Sonic.

The blue hedgehog fell to his knees, gasping from the pain still lingering in his arm, while Amy proceeded to continually bash at Metal with her hammer, enraged at what the robot did to her Sonic. Finally getting fed up with her, Metal blocked her latest swing with one arm and swung the other to land a hard blow into her gut, knocking the wind out of Amy and causing her to crumple to the ground.

"Away!" he yells while kicking Amy hard enough to throw her from the building, with Sonic following suit barely a second later. Both flesh hedgehogs hit the ground with a loud thud while Metal jumped after them, landing perfectly a few feet from them. "Any last words?" Metal mockingly asks as he approached the two.

"Get away from my friends!" yells a voice off to Metal's right, and upon turning he saw one pissed off echidna riding towards him on a runaway Ex-Gear bike, standing on the bike's hood. Before the robot could react, Knuckles' spiky fist connected with Metal's head and tossed the robot away from the injured hedgehogs.

Shortly after he got up from being slugged, Metal was slammed into the ground again, this time by Rouge's Screw Kick from behind. Now he was mad, and Metal managed to reach behind him, grab Rouge by the leg and toss her at Knuckles, causing the two to crash and stop their assault.

Again, before he could do anything, Shade suddenly teleported in front of him fully clad in her armor, extended her Leech Blade, and drove it into Metal's side. Before she could siphon away any energy, Metal grabbed her wrist, yanked the blade from him, then threw her at the rest of the crowd.

"Pathetic!" Metal exclaims, "None of you can defeat me! I'm unstoppable!"

Not one to take arrogance lightly, Shade forces herself to her feet and charges head-on at Metal. The robot almost sighs as he gets ready to counter this attack, but then Shade vanishes before she reaches him. Before Metal knew what was going on, Shade reappeared behind him and drove the Leech Blade into his back, turning the robot's movements sluggish as its power gets drawn away.

"Guys! Now!" Shade yells, but the only one who was able to respond was Knuckles, Metal Sonic had twisted Rouge's ankle when he grabbed her. The red echidna pulled himself out from under Rouge, and charged straight towards Metal before slugging the robot in the face.

Metal counters by blasting Knuckles with a laser pulse from his right hand, then triggers his turbine to burn Shade and force her to back off. Both echidnas regroup before charging Metal again, this time combining their strength. Once again Shade teleports with her Warp Belt, only this time she takes Knuckles with her. Together the two reappear at some random point next to Metal, slug the robot with a double punch, then teleport again before he could counter.

Their tactic doesn't last though, on the third jump Metal was able to hit Shade's belt with a laser pulse and disable it, then roundhouse kick the two away. The two land in a heap on the street, Knuckles atop Shade, and this time Metal blasts them with a laser shot, causing an explosion that throws the two into the third floor of a nearby office building.

"Oh come now, you can't possibly hope to beat me!" Metal exclaims, loud enough for all of the mobians to hear. "I'm more powerful than you could imagine and I've memorized all of Eggman's data files on each of you! I know your every move and strategy, you've lost!"

"Prove it!" yells another voice, but instead of seeing someone approach, Metal was suddenly lifted up into the air by some invisible force. He was only able to get enough time to see Silver and Blaze standing on a wrecked car before getting flung into a streetlight. From there he got smashed into the ground, then lifted and ground against a building, then finally smashed into the ground again before a car was dropped on him.

Silver and Blaze were about to celebrate when a laser beam blew the car off of Metal, then a second shot out of the dust cloud and burned Silver's side. With a gasp of pain, Silver dropped the Sol Emerald in his hand and fell to his knees, clutching his side with his eyes scrunched shut from the pain.

Blaze growls at the robot before scooping up the emerald and charging him in a fireball. Metal was able to dodge Blaze's charge, but the cat quickly stopped, broke her fire shield up into about ten fireballs then chucked them at Metal. Thanks to some quick movements and a few laser pulses, Metal was able to dodge all of the fireballs, but was quickly struck from the side with a fiery kick.

Metal skids on the ground a little before aiming and firing another laser shot. Blaze quickly puts up another fire shield and, due to the heat, the laser blast gets diffused around her. Upon dropping the shield, Blaze quickly taunts with, "Heat refracts light." before charging at him again.

"But heat doesn't effect mass!" Metal counters before slugging through Blaze's fire shield and connecting with her face, a blow strong enough to make her back away. To keep his edge going, Metal flies up to Blaze, slugs her in the gut, then knees her in the jaw before laser blasting her into a car.

While getting beaten, Blaze had dropped the Sol Emerald at Metal's feet, and now that the cat was out of the way, Metal smugly grabs the emerald and gazes at his light-blue victory spoils. "Yet another emerald for my collection. I'll thank you, by ending you."

"Back off!" yells yet another voice. Before Metal could blink, Shadow appeared about two feet from him, then Spin Dashed into the robot, sending it flying several feet back.

"Ah, Shadow the Hedgehog. I was wondering when you'd show yourself." Metal hisses while stashing the Sol Emerald in his quills.

Shadow leers at the robot before shouting out, "Chaos...Punishment!" and disappearing in a Chaos Control flash. Over the next minute, Shadow quickly repeats a cycle of appear next to Metal Sonic, attack, disappear, repeat. Once those sixty seconds are up, Shadow reappears for good...but using all of those Chaos Controls in such a short time has taken its toll and left Shadow panting hard.

What was worse was that Metal had barely any damage to show for all of Shadow's hard work, maybe a few dents and scratches here and there, but that was it. "Surprised?" Metal asks in a laugh, "I've rebuilt myself with a new alloy in my metallic armor. Not only is my skin tougher, but I'm also running off a Chaos Emerald."

His turbine roars before Metal flies towards Shadow and slugs the Ultimate Life Form in the face, throwing him several feet away. Shadow lands on the pavement, wincing from the stinging sensation on his face and the scrapes to his back the rough surface made. He tries to lift himself up, but Metal's foot comes down on his chest and keeps him down. "I had hoped you would be more of a challenge. Guess you aren't the Ultimate Life-Form after all." Metal says in a tone of mock sympathy.

The robot aims his palm at Shadow's face, "I do wish I had made Sonic my first kill, but you'll do."

Before either Metal or Shadow could react, a large black mass shoots out of Shadow's shadow and slugs Metal in the face, scratching the glass over his eyes and forcing the robot to back away. "You keep away from Shadow!" Dusk yells as she lands between Shadow and Metal, her eyes glinting with anger.

"You...you are that Dusk girl I've seen on the news." Metal mumbles as his eyes self-repair. "I know of your story, and I've read through all of the highly-detailed files Eggman kept on you. You're at an even bigger disadvantage than the others."

"Why do you think I brought along a friend?" Dusk asks before whistling then leaping away. Out of nowhere, a compact missile blasts Metal in the side. Metal turns to where the shot came from, but gets forced backward as his person gets pelted with the shots of a gatling gun.

While the evil robot is forced away from Shadow, another figure stomps out of a nearby alley. This one was quite tall, he had to have been at least six-and-a-half, seven feet tall. He was also very buff with large arms and a large torso with wide shoulders. His legs were kinda small, but they definitely held him up with ease. His head was also small, all that could be seen was two piercing red eyes glaring out. His normal hands, two large steel-gray hands with sharp clawed fingers, were replaced by gatling guns and those were currently a blur as they shot at Metal. His whole metal body was painted in black, red, and gold, jutting out of his back was a couple small rocket engines, and painted onto his left shoulder was a red omega symbol.

E-123 Omega continued to blast away at Metal Sonic as Dusk knelt down next to Shadow. "Hey big guy, you okay?" she softly asks, concerned about the little blood trickling out of a wound near Shadow's temple.

"Nothing I won't recover from." Shadow replies, "Where'd you find Omega?"

"Bumped into him while I was skating here." Dusk replies, "He doesn't seem to trust me, but came along when I said you'd need help."

"Omega just needs a little time to get used to you that's all." Shadow replies. "He'll warm up."

Just after Shadow said that, the two head Metal Sonic yell, "Die Omega!" and turned just in time to see Metal fire off a laser beam that shot straight through Omega's torso.

"Omega!" Shadow yells as his robotic friend falls to ground, his glowing red eyes fading to a cold gray. The umber hedgehog snarls as he gets up, then detaches both of his wrist limiters. With a flash of light, his body begins to glow with crimson red chaos energy, and in an instant he flies towards Metal and slams the robot with a fist.

The instant the robot hits the ground, Shadow's above him and smashing downward, curled up into a ball and spinning at supersonic speeds. Despite the near-critical situation he's in, Metal is able to aim his palm at and blast Shadow from him. They scuffle over the next minutes with Chaos Spears and laser blasts going in every direction, before Metal manages to land a fist to Shadow's gut, then chop down on the umber hedgehog's back, hitting a nerve that effectively knocks out Shadow.

Like what's happened before, Metal was attacked again before he could finish off Shadow, this time by an enraged purple hedgehog. Dusk had rammed Metal so hard that she managed to jostle free the Sol Emerald sitting in the robot's quills. Metal landed on the ground as the light-blue jewel clattered to Dusk's feet.

"You annoying pest." Metal hisses, "Why is it you care about the Ultimate Life-Form so much?"

"He's a friend, and I protect my friends." Dusk replies while picking up the Sol Emerald and squeezing it, getting its energies to flow through her, "Didn't I hear something about you having an emerald? Well now its mine against yours."

"I doubt you'll live long enough to use it!" Metal yells, charging at Dusk who leaps away and dodges.

Knowing she'll need both hands, Dusk slips the jewel down her top into a secure, though somewhat embarrassing place on her upper body, then dodges another charge from the robot. Once Metal passes, Dusk pulls a tentacle out of his shadow and bashes the robot in the back with it. Metal turns around, only to get hit in the side with the same shadow-mass, but it vanishes before he could blast it.

Turning back toward Dusk, Metal saw that she had used the Sol Emerald's power to make herself a shadow-hammer, which was currently resting in her right hand. Interestingly, this weapon resembled Amy's hammers quite closely, if one ignored the fact that Dusk's was created out of the shadow in her hand.

Metal didn't really have that much time to analyze Dusk's new toy, since she quickly charged at him, swinging the hammer wildly in all directions. He dodged most of her assault, but was tossed into a truck when she increased the handle length and caught him off guard. Metal pulled himself out of the truck with just enough time to block another swing of the hammer, then he brought his other hand around for a slash.

In an instant Dusk changed the hammer into a sword and used its broadside to block Metal's slash. Once she was sure it was blocked, Dusk brought the sword around to slash back at Metal, but the robot had jumped away. Dusk charges towards Metal, changes her sword back into a hammer, then brought it down from above, aiming to squash Metal's head. Metal swung his left hand up to block the swing and it worked, but the force crunched the armor in his arm and caused a sickening grinding sound to ring out.

Metal could feel that Dusk was putting some serious force into crushing him with the hammer, and since the blow had managed to weaken some of the internal mechanics of his left arm, he had to use his right one to help keep the hammer up in the air. While fighting with Dusk, Metal's eyes were trained on her hammer, but after a few seconds, they drifted down to Dusk's chest. There, glowing with a sky-blue light, was the Sol Emerald, peeking out from between her breasts...if only he could get it back, then he'd...

Metal's thought was cut off when Dusk yells, "You pervert!" after noticing where his eyes were looking. She jerks her hammer out of Metal's grip then swings it around and slams it into his side with one smooth move. Dusk quickly changed her hammer into a sword then charged and swung at Metal, aiming to take his head off.

She was just about to succeed in her efforts, but Metal was able to move at the last second, meaning instead of his head, Dusk slashed of the lower half of Metal's right arm. The robot yells out before blasting Dusk away with his good arm.

The robot hisses at all of them as his damaged arm sparks and leaks fluid onto the ground. As much as he and his anger wanted to annihilate all of them, the ten or so warnings blinking in his field of view told him that retreat was the only option. "I'll let you all live for today, but know this sonic heroes. Already my plan is in motion and its only a matter of time before you all go down." he announces before blasting at the ground with his good hand, kicking up a smokescreen that blinds their view for a minute.

By the time it settled, Metal Sonic was gone, separated arm and all.

Dusk groans as she gets up, then walks over to her other friends. "Nice job Dusk, you didn't beat Metal but you at least made him retreat." Sonic comments. The blue hedgehog was sitting up against a car, breathing heavily from the severe blows he took.

"Yea, I didn't think my sis could pull it off, but you managed to hurt Metal both physically and mentally." Amy adds from her position beside Sonic, "Bet that was quite a wound to his pride."

"Serves him right." Dusk snorts, "How dare he peek down my top. Creepy metallic pervert." she adds in a mutter.

Silver grunts as he struggles to stand up, "You know he wanted the emerald, not your body."

"Still doesn't give him the right to violate a lady's privacy." Dusk replies, crossing her arms and glancing away. Upon noticing Blaze nearby, Dusk quickly says, "Oh! Blaze! You'll probably want your emerald back."

"No Dusk." Blaze says, holding up a hand to stop the hedge-girl, "Keep it. With an enemy like Metal Sonic around, we'll need to use the emeralds, not lock them away."

"Blaze is right, but if Metal was running off of one, he's probably got more," Rouge adds.

From off to the group's left, the friends can hear Shadow and Tails talking. The two were over by Omega, and seemed to be discussing his repair. About twenty seconds after the muffled conversation reaches their ears, the two mobians return to their friends.

"How is he?" Dusk asks.

"He's powered down, but repairable." Shadow replies, "Metal was only able to blast through a main power cable, not anything more serious." He lets out a quiet sigh of relief, "Tails should be able to get Omega up and running again in a few days."

"Once I get back to my workshop, I'll return in the X-Hurricane to pick up Omega." Tails adds, then winks at the group, "Don't worry at all, he'll be good as new before you realize it."

"Alright Tails, thanks." Rouge says, the other friend of the robot, "But we'll need you with us to figure out how we'll counter-attack."

"Counter-attack?" Shade repeats, "You can't be serious Rouge. None of you are in any sort of condition for an adventure."

"If I had enough Chaos Emeralds, I can heal all of us," Shadow states, "I've got one."

"And there's two locked up in the GUN vaults." Rouge adds.

"Three will be enough."

"Alright, we'll also have to use our two Sol Emeralds wisely." Blaze adds. Everyone murmurs some sort off agreement at this. "Everyone meet at my palace as soon as you can. Rouge, get the emeralds from the GUN vaults, Shadow bring yours. You all can rest up there as well before we go."

"Thanks Blaze." Sonic says before he gets up. "Come on Tails, I'll give you a lift back to your home."

Tails nods before allowing Sonic to lift him up then take off, leaving behind a blue streak as he goes. Shortly after Sonic goes, Amy leaves with Cosmo in her arms. Rouge limps into a nearby alley and disappears from view for a few seconds before rushing back out on her board and leaving. Knuckles struggles over to where his crashed bike was, tugs it out of the rubble, then gets on before driving back to the group. He allows Shade to climb on behind him before leaving as well. The last two to leave were Blaze, on foot, and Silver, also on foot but at a slightly slower pace than his girlfriend.

Dusk glances over towards Shadow and notices that he was looking back at Omega's body. "Shadow?" she asks, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine Dusk." he replies.

"You don't sound fine."

Shadow sighs, his girlfriend had called his bluff, "I'm just frustrated with myself. I let myself get weakened so much that I couldn't protect a friend...its my fault Omega was blasted."

"Come on, don't blame yourself."

"Why not?" Shadow angrily asks.

"Whether you were hurt or not, there wouldn't have been anyway to keep Metal Sonic from shooting him." Dusk sighs, "And if Omega was awake, would he want you beating yourself up or helping everyone else stop Metal?"

"You've got a point."

"Course I do." Dusk says, "Now lets go get your Chaos Emerald." She then leans against Shadow in a teasing way that showed off her Sol Emerald. "Maybe that little jewel will get to join his buddy," she slyly says, winking her eyelashes against Shadow's cheek.

Shadow only mumbles while his cheeks begin to glow. Dusk stays there for a few seconds before laughing and pulling away. "Come on! That emerald won't get itself!" she says, grabbing Shadow's hand and tugging him along.

* * *

Several thousand miles away, in a decrepit old Eggman base stashed in the deepest part of a forest, with hole-filled ceilings that allowed the sunlight to enter at odd angles and various vines, creepers, and trees growing out of the ground, Metal Sonic struggled down a hallway towards the repair bay, cursing that purple hedgehog for being able to inflict so much damage on him. Eventually the robot hedgehog got into the repair bay and laid down on a table, resting his arm on a nearby desk.

The repair bay was a pretty large room, inhabited by a metal table with several drawers of tools and spare parts nearby. Where the ceiling light was is now a large hole up to the sky with the sun providing the light now. Several vines were hanging from the ceiling and some of the floor was ripped up by the roots of a tree growing in a nearby room.

A couple footsteps are heard before a tutting sound. "Sonic...how did you let yourself get into this condition." a voice asked.

"Don't lecture me, just get onto the repairs." Metal Sonic snaps at the voice.

The voice sighs before collecting several tools and going to work on Metal's body. Metal simply lies there will allowing the repairs to go on...pondering this little defeat. He brushes it aside though, there wouldn't be anyway Sonic or his friends would survive this plan of his.

"Give me a progress report on the others." Metal demands.

"The others are roughly seventy-five to eighty percent finished." the voice replied while beginning to reconnect the wires in Metal's arm. "Their basic structures are more or less finished, all that's left is to give them their unique abilities and finish the programming."

"Good. Are you almost done?"

"A few more minutes."

"Alright...what about the re-activated Eggbots?"

"Total conversion of Eggman's stored army has been completed while you were playing." the voice replies, "All of the grunts are ready for your command...although some of the larger machines are lagging slightly behind. They should be finished by nightfall though."

"Meh, fine. I'll need those robots to keep my copy occupied while our friends are finished. That blue fool is probably planning a counter-attack by now." Metal grumbles.

"Guess its a good thing he doesn't know the location of our base." The voice mutters, now replacing the damaged panels on Metal's other arm.

"True, but I'll need the resources in several of Eggman's other bases to assure my victory."

"Sonic?" The voice asks, turning away from its work.

"Once one of our friends is done, send them to me. I'll need them to spread out to the bases my forces will re-activate and oversee reconstruction."

"Understood." The voice says before going back to work.

_What a fool Eggman was to leave all of these robots in his bases. He's practically handing me an army and with him in jail, I don't have to worry about him interfering._ Metal thought to himself, _Enjoy your life while you can Sonic...soon I'm going to end yours and all of your friends._

"Finished Sonic." The voice announces as its owner backs away.

Metal sat up and tested his arms, finding them to be good as new. "Excellent work. Now go and supervise the remainder of the construction process. I have an army to command." he orders while getting off the table and walking away.

His repairer watches him walk away before turning to leave through another door. However...in that process, part of it enters the sunlight that was leaking down from above...revealing a quick glimpse of golden-yellow metal before it vanishes into the shadowy depths of the base.

**

* * *

**

Finally a battle! I've been waiting for this chapter since the story started! Hope it didn't disappoint! Get ready for one big adventure ahead, and I can guarantee plenty of trouble along the way. One last thing, my avatar picture has changed to be a picture of Dusk, so if any of you are still a little foggy on her looks, just swing by my profile page to see her.


	7. Casino City

Chapter 7 Casino City

All of the Sonic crew stayed up until at least midnight last night, discussing their ideas on how to fight back against Metal Sonic. The band of friends had gathered around a table in one of Blaze's living rooms, a map of the continent spread out atop the table and their five emeralds glittering atop that. Three new faces had also shown up; Vector, Espio, and Charmy were bumped into as Sonic left Central City, and upon remembering their efforts the last time Metal Sonic showed up, invited them along to join in.

After several hours and several cups of coffee were downed by almost everyone, the basic plan was formed. Like the last time Metal Sonic worked his evil ways, everyone agreed to split up into teams, however unlike last time where they formed teams of three, they formed pairs. They'd split up and scatter across the continent, searching for any remaining emeralds and any of Metal Sonic's bases, with destruction planned for any of the latter ones discovered.

However not everyone actually formed a search party...Vector and Charmy decided to return to Central City to help in the repairs and cleanup, allowing Espio to leave with the others, and Tails and Cosmo had to return to his workshop to begin repairing Omega. It was finally decided at the stroke of 12:30, that everyone would depart in the following pairs: Blaze and Silver, Rouge and Espio, Knuckles and Shade, Shadow and Dusk, and Sonic and Amy. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver each got one of the Chaos Emeralds, while Espio and Dusk were allowed to take a Sol Emerald each (Blaze thought it was best if she didn't take one...it would be too obvious a way for Metal to take another Emerald).

All of the friends were given permission to sleep in the guest rooms, and after the day's events and the long planning session, each one of them quickly fell into a deep slumber. Just before they left the palace the next morning after breakfast, Rouge handed over a small PDA-like device to each team, saying they were special communication devices that worked with GUN's satellites, allowing them to keep in touch no matter where they went.

With that all of them split up, heading off in separate directions to do whatever they could to stop Metal Sonic...unaware of what danger lurked ahead...

* * *

"Ugh..." Blaze groans, shielding her eyes with her hands, "Why does it have to be so bright here?"

She and Silver were standing just at the outskirts of Casino City, which got its name because the entire city was built off of gambling, greed, and money. The weather was gray and one huge cloud covered the entire sky and blocked out the sun, but due to the glow of all the neon and electric signs not to mention the reflective buildings, it was as if that cloud wasn't there in the first place.

"Don't know, but you should get used to it. Those signs never go off." Silver replies, idly tossing the deep-blue Chaos Emerald he took between his hands. "Shall we move through here?"

"As quickly as we can, how about we use the high road?"

He nods before stashing the emerald into his quills. "Race you up there!" Silver exclaims before flinging himself atop the nearest hotel with his powers. Blaze smiles a little before using her flames to fly after him.

Silver had landed near an air-conditioning unit when Blaze shot by him and landed on the far side of the building. She turns back to Silver and gives her boyfriend a quick wink before saying, "Race you across town!" then charging toward the edge and leaping to the next building, Silver hot on her heels.

Blaze had easily jumped to the next building, and just as easily speeds across this one before leaping to the next. She heard Silver yell "Wait up!" from a few feet behind her, but that only prompted the cat to speed up as she flew to the next building.

A few more of the standard skyscraper-shaped buildings are run across before a pyramid shaped one gets in their way. Having no means to scale the sleek sides of the obstacle, Blaze and Silver did the only sensible thing to do...leap clear over the four lane plus median street below to the slightly smaller casino on the other side.

Both mobians mange to clear the street below with ease, and also perform a stylish finish by soaring the hole in the 'O' of the sign sitting atop the building. "Heh, don't think our race is over yet." Blaze says, prompting Silver to chase after her tail as the cat leaps down from the building, landing on a monorail line below.

The two begin racing along the monorail line, using it to traverse the city without having to go into the traffic below. It was going well for a minute or so...then the two see an automatic monorail zooming towards them. The problem was solved by simply jumping over to the neighboring rail and continuing on, but an even worse problem quickly arose...

From out of nowhere a blob of cobalt-blue light blew a hole in the monorail tracks, right where they crossed the street. With no room to slow down in, both Blaze and Silver are sent tumbling down to the road below, landing face-down beside the pile of rubble.

Blaze lifts herself up and shakes her head a little, "What happened?" she asks.

"Maybe we should ask them." Silver replies, pointing towards a crowd of approaching robots, at least fifteen in number.

Each robot was identical to its buddies, with a rounded, blue body that had a deep-gray belt around the middle. Its arms were simple hoses with a hand at the end, with the same applying to the feet except that those were half-spheres. To be completely honest, they looked like the classic Egg-Pawn, just painted blue, but there was one difference...the head. Instead of the wide-eyed look of the past Egg-Pawns, these eyes were designed to make the robot look like it was scowling, and there were three large quills added to the head, the two side ones going up at an angle and the center one being longer and having a white arrow pointing downward...similar to Metal Sonic's quills.

A majority of the glaring robots were unarmed, but two of them had a huge weapon over their shoulders. It was a long cylinder with five quills at one end, again with one being longer than the others with a white arrow on it. Whatever that shot was that blew apart the monorail tracks, it undoubtedly came from those weapons.

"Think we'll have to fight?" Blaze asks her friend.

"_Biologicals identified as Blaze and Silver._" the robot at the head of the crowd said aloud, "_Priority targets locked. Fellow Metal Grunts, charge!_" Immediately the thirteen without weapons run toward the two mobians, while the two with them begin to aim.

"I say yes." Silver replies before firing off a psychic shockwave that sent one of the armed robots for a free flight. While he darted off to attack the other armed robot at close range, Blaze surrounds herself in flames then barrels straight into the crowd of robots, sending them flying like bowling pins.

She skidded to a halt to see the robots everywhere, lying on their sides or stuck on their backs. Upon seeing the intimidating robots immobilized so easily, Blaze can't help but let out a laugh, "Guess these guys were just mean looking, not..." he sentence trails off as the robots begin to transform.

Their legs retracted into the body, fitting the feet into some perfect shaped holes. The arms also retracted before the hands folded down into a couple indents. Lastly, their heads rolled back, so the face would've been looking straight up if they were upright, then sank a little, which finished the transformation from robot to a near perfect sphere. A large, five-foot diameter, metal sphere.

A loud whirring sound is heard as the two hemispheres of each robot began to spin, giving the spheres the traction needed to begin rolling back towards Blaze in a mimic of Sonic's Spin Dash. If it wasn't for Blaze using her fire to leap away, she would've been flattened under the bots. Instead of squishing the cat, all of the robots hit one another and ricochet off, smashing into parked cars and nearby walls.

The robots only stopped long enough to pop their heads back out to lock onto Silver before going off again, only this time they all crashed into a shield he formed and bounced away again. "At least they don't seem to be that smart." Silver commented before lifting the wreck of the robot he just broke and flinging it into some of the approaching spheres, breaking them as well.

"Silver! Behind you!" Blaze yells, jumping back down from the monorail tracks to kick away some of the other bots.

"Thanks." Silver says, before blasting away one of the approaching robots.

Seeming to get bored with this technique, the spheres stopped, used one of their arms to push them back upright, then completely uncurled. "_Give up. You will fail._" one of them said.

"Yea...I highly doubt that." Blaze replied before throwing a fireball at the robot that spoke. The fireball harmlessly broke apart against the robot's armor, but distracted it enough for Blaze to charge up and stab its eye with a kick.

Two of the injured robot's buddies came to help, but got slammed against one another by Silver's telekinesis, then thrown into another. While the hedgehog was busy handling the other four robots that rushed up to him, one of the less noticed ones picked up a weapon that his friend dropped when Silver destroyed it.

With a bazooka in hand, the robot began to aim at the silver hedgehog...then, just as his robotic finger began to pull back on the trigger, Blaze tackled him from the side, causing the shot to hurtle upward into the sky. One punch was thrown before she destroyed that robot, leaving it headless, and to help her boyfriend out, Blaze picked up the bazooka and yelled, "Metal heads!" To get the the attention of the remaining four bots.

Silver and the robots turn toward her call, just as Blaze pulls the trigger and blows away two of the robots with one shot. Two shots later, and the last two are destroyed...leaving Blaze with a large gun held under her arm, a serious look on her face, and a somewhat unnerved Silver watching her.

"Umm..." he mumbles, sweating a little at how fiercely his girlfriend destroyed the last of those robots.

"Umm what?" Blaze asks, letting the weapon drop to the ground.

"Never mind...I just got a new reason why I shouldn't make you mad, that's all."

Blaze rolls her eyes before saying, "Don't forget, our race is still on!" and taking off down the street. Silver only pauses long enough to smirk before following her.

The two begin their mad street-level rush by jumping around an oncoming bus, then over two sedans. After darting around a stopped semi-truck, Blaze grows tired of the obstacles and decides to return to the rooftops by pulling a trick Sonic showed her.

She pulls a hard 90-degree turn and flies right towards a casino building, then with a little jump from her fire, she starts speeding up the walls. Silver, in order to keep up, uses a telekinetic shockwave to hurl himself up to the building's roof, reaching there just as Blaze did.

However, once again their race is put on hold...more of those Metal Grunts were waiting up on the rooftop. There were three of them, one with another bazooka was standing in the middle of roof, an unarmed one was atop an air conditioner, and a second unarmed one walks out from behind a vent.

The two unarmed ones quickly ran for Blaze and Silver, but got lifted up and tossed off the edge by the hedgehog. The one with the bazooka was trying to aim, but while Silver had sent its buddies away, Blaze had run up and delivered a fiery punch to the robot's face, then she jumps up and slams the heel of her shoe into it as well...which, more or less, shut the enemy down.

"Great so they're up here too." Blaze comments, kicking at the side of the robot she broke.

"At least we can break them easily from this height." Silver states, "Just chuck 'em over the building's edge."

Blaze shrugs, then hears Silver cackle. She looks to see that he was running off and had gained a lead in their race. "Oh no you don't!" Blaze yells before giving chase.

The two continue through the city along the rooftops destroying the occasional Metal Grunt that was waiting for them up there. Over alleys, leaping over air ducts, jumping clear over the street whenever the next building in their way had odd shapes to it or was much larger than theirs, and pulling off a stunt that swaps first between them...they did it all in the next five or so minutes before they reach the far end of Casino City.

They stood atop the golden skyscraper, the last building of the city, staring out at the horizon-reaching grass plains. The rippling sea of grass was only interrupted by a four-lane road that gently curved off towards the east. Blaze sighs as this much more natural sight is held by her eyes, "Ah...finally we can go on."

Silver grunts while giving a nod, then looks down towards the road. "And I think we should follow them." he says while pointing down at the road.

Blaze looks to see four Metal Grunts rolling along down the highway, away from the town. They didn't appear to have much care for traffic laws, since all of them were rolling down the middle of the highway, one in on-coming traffic's path (if there was anyone else on the highway), a second intruding into the two lanes on the other side of the highway, and the last two rolling down the median, all in a diamond formation.

"How much you wanna bet they'll lead us to Metal Sonic?" Silver asks.

"I'd wager a Sol Emerald if I had one." Blaze says before leaping down from the building and chasing the rolling spheres, forcing Silver to play chase once again.

The two mobians follow the robot spheres for about a mile away from the city, and its just as they are coming to an overpass when they fall into a trap...

The four spheres speed across the elevated road, but as Blaze and Silver approach it, something suddenly tears clean through, smashing the roadway to bits and getting the two to fall down to the road beneath.

With a few groans they shake their heads and look off to the right, finding a crowd of at least thirty Metal Grunts...but they were all standing around another, much larger robot.

This one was at least fifteen feet tall and looked like the Metal Grunts; same body shape, same odd legs, and same spiked head, but it didn't have any arms. Instead, it had two long tubes in the arms' place that appeared to be cannons of some kind. Each was as long as the robot was tall, having about twenty percent of their length back behind the shoulder, with the rest aimed down at the two mobians.

"_Blaze and Silver detected. Metal Cannon now beginning battle sequence._" The monstrous robot says.

A revving noise comes out of its right cannon before it fires in a surprisingly silent attack. The cannonball lands right in front of the two mobians, and once the dust of its impact clears away, an uncurling Metal Grunt is standing in the crater.

"Great, he's firing the little guys at us." Silver says before kicking the small robot away.

"Incoming!" Blaze yells.

Sure enough, two more Metal Grunts were flying at them, but got bounced off to the side by a shockwave from Silver. Sadly, getting tossed into a dirt mound at high speeds didn't destroy the attackers, and what's more is that some of the Metal Cannon's groupies charged at the mobians while the two that got fired pull themselves out of the ground.

"I've got the new ones." Blaze says before hitting one of them with a flying-flame kick.

With Blaze roasting the chargers, Silver was free to handle the two that Metal Cannon fired. One of them throws a punch, which was dodged, then the other also throws a punch. This time Silver dodges and counters by slamming into a fist into the attacker's metal face, then levitating and tossing it into the rubble of the causeway.

While Silver was handling the other robot, Blaze was doing pretty well against the four that charged towards her. One quickly fell from a heel to its face, another was forced away by a fireball, and a third had several nicks in its armor from the princess' heels.

Blaze quickly leans out of the way of a punch, then turns her flamethrowers on it. The already nicked robot soon overheats and explodes, leaving the feline with two. However, while she was busy with the one she just broke, the fourth curls up and rams Blaze from behind...throwing her towards the other robot that lands a cheap shot to her side.

Blaze skids a little on the asphalt, growls at the robots, and prepares to attack, but is forced away by more of the Metal Cannon's shots. She waves the dust away as the two robots uncurl, but they get tossed back at the larger bot by a shockwave before any attacks could be thrown.

"Thanks Silver." Blaze says as her friend leaps between her and the other two.

"Anytime." He replies before smashing the last two together, destroying them. "Now we've got to get him." He adds, pointing at the Metal Cannon, which was loading more Metal Grunts into its cannons.

"How? He's got a crowd of little guys at his feet."

"Who said anything about attacking from the ground?" Silver asks, before grabbing Blaze and throwing her at the large robot with telekinesis.

Despite the surprise at suddenly flying through the air towards a fifteen foot tall robot, Blaze manages to land on the Metal Cannon's shoulder and begin attacking its head...but can't seem to do anything against its armor except make her hands sore.

She hears two muffled "foomps" behind her, and turns to see that the robot had fired again, aiming at Silver. Luckily the hedgehog manages to redirect the incoming shots to smash through some of the Grunts in the crowd, but again the robot is oblivious and already loading its next shots.

That's when an idea hits her. "Silver!" She yells to get his attention, "Try sending its attacks back at it!"

"No guarantees, but I'll give it a try!" He yells back, keeping the remaining Metal Grunts at bay with shockwaves.

He doesn't have to wait long, soon after Blaze says her idea, the robot fires again. Silver does his best to redirect the cannonballs to the Metal Cannon and succeeds, but only manages to graze its underside.

Realizing that trying to redirect big heavy metal balls flying at fast speeds was quite difficult, Blaze moves to stand in front of its left eye and begins attacking the slightly more vulnerable spot. Sadly, even after several hard blows, she doesn't do much more than crack the lens.

"Blaze!" Silver yells in a slightly strained voice, "Get out of the way!"

Blaze peers over her shoulder for a split-second before leaping away from the eye, which gets destroyed when Silver chucks a curled up Metal Grunt into it.

Even though it lost an eye, the Metal Cannon was still able to use its good one to aim and fire another shot at Silver. Again the hedgehog tries to toss the cannonball back at the robot, but this time misses the head and hits one of the cannons, very close to the joint connecting the weapon to the body. After the robot fires again, Silver redirects both shots back at the weakened cannon, this time completely knocking the massive weapon off the robot.

Now it was Blaze's turn, having kicked the Metal Grunt off of the large robot's body (and letting it smash into some of its buddies on the ground) she ran for the hole in the Metal Cannon's armor and flips inside the massive robot. Once inside, all she had to do is coat herself in fire and begin smashing anything within reach.

It only took thirty seconds for her to reach and destroy the robot's power core, then burst out of the titan's chest, landing perfectly in front of Silver as the Metal Cannon's body collapses on top of its groupies, crushing all of them.

"Phew." she sighs, "We finally broke it."

Silver laughs, "Odd, I don't remember you getting so tired from any of Eggman's robots..."

"Who said I'm tired?" Blaze asks, crossing her arms and shooting Silver a serious look. "I'm just glad we destroyed it. Besides, none of Eggman's robots shot other robots at us...speaking of which, how did that thing do it anyway?"

Silver walks up to the wreck of the cannon he knocked off, examines it a little, then says, "An electromagnetic mass driver. Throws metal objects at high speeds without explosives or noise." He pauses, "Metal Sonic's clever, I'll give him that."

Blaze nods while 'hmm-ing'. She then glances over at the wreckage and sees one of the Metal Grunts Silver threw roll out of the grass and hurry away down the road behind the wreck. "Want to bet that little guy will lead us to Metal Sonic?"

"That...or another Metal Cannon." Silver says before he and Blaze take off after the spherical robot.

**

* * *

**

Well? How was this chapter? Enough action? Most of the near-future chapters are probably going to be written like this, and I'm trying to imitate what the levels in a Sonic game are like, running through at high speeds and doing crazy stuff like running down monorail lines and dodging on-coming traffic...you know, the high speed levels from games like Sonic Adventure and its sequel.

**Speaking of the games, Casino City was partially inspired by both the Casino Park and Bingo Highway levels from Sonic Heroes. Also, if you don't know what an Egg-Pawn is, that's my name for those little round, red or gold robots that are everywhere in Sonic Heroes. You know, the guys that carry the spears, bazookas, or goofy looking machine guns and possibly a shield. The Metal Cannon however, is entirely my idea.**


	8. Misty Jungle

**Aw yea! I'm so excited that everyone enjoys the style of mimicing the action stages from the games. That style will be around for a while, so that's a really good thing! Anyway, enjoy this next level!**

* * *

Chapter 8 Misty Jungle

"So...we've gotta go through this?" Rouge asks, glancing up at the towering trees growing just in front of her.

She and Espio had headed south, and were currently standing at the edge of one of the thick jungles that flourished in this region. The sun was about mid-way up the sky, making the already hot air even hotter, and to make things more annoying...it was humid. Not humid enough to drive people crazy or anything, but just enough to make skin feel annoyingly damp.

"Yes we do." Espio replies. "Do you think you can keep up?"

Rouge gives the chameleon a smirk before dropping her Ex-Gear board to the ground, then hopping onto it. "Can _you_ keep up?" she asks before riding off into the jungle.

Espio suppresses a smirk...Rouge would go anywhere if it meant she could get her hands on an emerald. Before the spy could get too far away, Espio began tailing her, and was able to keep up thanks to two things; his ninja speed, and that Rouge couldn't go that fast without hitting a tree.

To help give him an edge, Espio takes a mighty leap up to an approaching tree. The instant his feet touch the trunk, he springs off, aiming for another tree up ahead. By repeating this tactic and "pinballing" between the trees, he's able to both catch and pass Rouge.

"Hey!" Rouge yells, watching the ninja pull away, "No..." She was going to complain, but after spying a huge, thick vine of ivy growing within reach, she gets a different idea. With a flap of her wings, Rouge lifts herself and the board up into the air before landing sideways on the ivy growth, using it like a grind-rail to catch up to her ninja team-mate.

The two continue on in silence for about a minute, Espio leaping between trees and Rouge jumping to another ivy growth whenever her's was about to end. The only noise was the calling of the birds in the trees...and when a sudden flock of them dart out of one tree, Espio gets suspicious. He was far too silent to spook that flock, and Rouge wasn't close enough...so what did?

A hint comes in the form of a muffled thump from behind. To actually look though, Espio leaps onto the same ivy vine Rouge was using. Allowing her slipstream to pull him along, Espio turns and looks back...finding a sight that puzzled him.

He and Rouge were being followed by...balls. Six big, blue rolling balls. The ninja cocks an eyebrow at this until he notices something else...these balls weren't plastic or rubber, they were metal.

"Rouge! Run!" Espio yells, whipping out a few shuriken and tossing them at the tailing robots. No avail, the ninja stars just bounce off the hard metal surface.

"What?"

"Run! Metal Sonic's cronies are after us!" he yells before leaping away, resuming his tree-pinball strategy. The bat only takes long enough to look back before kicking on the boost of her board.

Now with a reason to go fast, Espio and Rouge speed through the jungle as fast as they try to outrun the approaching Metal Grunts. Their path is more or less dictated by the ivy Rouge has to grind on, and boy does it take them and their pursuers on a wild ride. Wide arcs, sharp turns, long straightaways, a zig-zag like shape...they go every which way for several minutes, with the spheres holding a steady distance behind.

That's when a bit of bad-luck strikes. Rouge took just a second to look behind her and see if the robots were still following. Unfortunately, when she did that, she also took her eyes off the vine...and its end was fast approaching. In fact...it ended within a second of her looking back, and once board left vine...gravity did her fickle work.

Espio also glances back for a split-second before jumping off the tree he just touched, but this time he didn't continue forward. Instead, he bounces backwards and manages to snag both Rouge (with an arm around her waist) and her board out of mid-air, then leaps off another tree trunk.

With the extra weight of Rouge and her board, Espio wasn't able to jump far enough to reach the next tree, so instead he mounts Rouge's board in mid-air, uses it to cushion the landing, then rocket off on the ground.

As awkward as it was to have the curvy bat tucked under one arm like a loaf of bread, and even more so since she was backwards, Espio was able to stay focused on escaping the still-pursuing spheres. Despite him rarely ever using Ex-Gear of any kind, Espio was actually pretty good, and was able to weave around the thick roots of the trees and bunny-hop over the bushes with relative ease. Sadly, his advantage doesn't last long.

Quickly approaching from up ahead was a river, and even worse was that an uncurled Metal Grunt was waiting for them. In his hands wasn't a gun, it was a sword...a really long bladed sword with a slight curve in it so it resembled a scimitar, but with one critical difference...instead of having a smooth curve in it, way down near the tip was a sharp point that came back on the outside of the curve, which gave the sword a nasty hook-shape on both sides of the blade.

Luckily, before the robot could use its wicked weapon, Espio was able toss a few kunai right into its eyes, blinding it. Unluckily however was that a _second_ robot lunges out of the bushes at them with another sword. The robot takes a downward slash at the two and almost hits Espio, but the chameleon was able to pull away enough for the robot to slash down on the board instead.

With a small gasp, Espio and Rouge are flung from the board as it accelerates out from under them before colliding with the blind robot and exploding, destroying both. Espio crashes against a root, slamming his back against the thick bark, and Rouge lands on a large rock after slipping from Espio's grasp.

They both groan and shake off the impact before looking to see the sword wielding robot standing a few feet away, glaring at them as its weapon-less buddies catch up and uncurl. Before any of the robots could move, Espio whips out a few shuriken and tosses them, but doesn't manage to do anything beyond scratching the armor.

Rouge, either not noticing that Espio's stars didn't do anything or not caring, removes a ring about three inches in diameter from one of her gloves and throws it like a frisbee toward one of the robots. Somehow the ring sticks to the bot's chest, then electrocutes the machine, causing to roll over on its side, lifeless.

Its buddies notice this and quickly charge at the two, three unarmed ones going towards Rouge and two unarmed and the sword-user towards Espio. The clever ninja tries to disappear, but Metal Sonic did more than just give the robot's better armor. The three robots "blink" while switching their vision from normal to thermal, revealing Espio's exact position.

The one with the sword takes a swing, and its only thanks to Espio's reflexes that he gets a cut across his shoulder instead of getting sliced in half. The ninja counters by tossing out a wave a shuriken, managing to scuff up the armor even more and blinding two of the three attackers. Sadly, the one he didn't blind was the one with the sword, and Espio was forced to leap up the tree to avoid taking another slash.

Rouge wasn't faring much better...she was able to take down one more robot with another zap ring, but got forced to take flight when the other two got too close. Currently she was fluttering just out of reach of the evil machines, but was also down to her last zap ring. After finishing her self-cursing for not bringing more, Rouge dives down at one and tries to slash its head off with a kick...but only manages to poke an eye out before getting socked in the gut.

Now leaning against the tree root she was tossed against, Rouge struggles to get her breath back as the two robots stomp towards her. The bat gets into her best fighting stance when she hears a loud splash in the river followed by Espio shouting "Rouge!"

Looking past the two robots, Rouge saw that Espio had somehow managed to cut down a large branch from a tree that was growing over the river, and was now using it as a raft to get away. She gives the ninja a quick nod before putting all of her remaining strength into a single wing beat. With a mighty jump Rouge flies into the air, flips over the five robots still on the ground, and lands on the branch beside Espio.

After taking a deep breath to refill her lungs, Rouge yells, "Later guys! You can't catch us!" to the land-locked robots, then collapses against a small outgrowth of leaves, sighing as she recovers from the blow to her gut.

After a few more deep breathes, she manages to ask, "So how'd you get this branch down anyway Espio? Some kind of special ninja trick?"

"No, I actually managed to hurl one of those robot's swords up into the tree to cut this branch down." he replies. "Using their own weapons as a means to escape is sure to put them in a foul mood."

Rouge laughs a little, "It sure...oh my, Espio are you alright?" she asks, pointing at the cut on the ninja's shoulder, that was slowly dripping blood.

"Its only a flesh wound, nothing serious."

Rouge gives Espio a look that said "are-you-serious?" then held out a hand and said, "Knife."

"What?"

"Knife. Now."

Espio hands over one of his kunai to Rouge. He watches curiously as the bat pulls the legs of her bodysuit out of the boots, then uses the small dagger to cut off the lower portions. After cutting the rings of fabric into strips and removing them from around her legs, Rouge crawls over to Espio and ties the makeshift bandages around his shoulder.

The ninja only winces as she makes sure the knot is tight enough to keep from slipping, but loose enough so it doesn't hinder Espio's movement. After Rouge is satisfied with her work, she backs away a little to give Espio some room. "There, now you don't have to worry."

As much as he wanted to protest against this, Espio decides to keep his mouth shut instead. Even though it wasn't necessary for Rouge to bandage up his wound...Espio really didn't mind that much. She did a better job than he could've, that was for sure, but it also felt...nice that someone else cared about him.

"You really are the quiet type, aren't you Espio?"

A nod. Surprisingly, Rouge begins to chuckle a little. "Just like Knuckles..." she says aloud, then releases a sigh with a small hint of sadness in it.

Espio glances over at the slightly upset bat for a second, then suddenly draws two shuriken out of nowhere and tosses them up at a nearby tree-top. Surprised by his sudden actions, Rouge follows the shuriken with her eyes, watching as the first arcs upward and manages to cut a flower off of the tree before turning back to them while the second one actually _catches _the flower its friend had cut loose before returning as well.

The ninja catches both of his weapons with ease, hides the empty one away, but takes the flower from the second and hands it to Rouge. With a little blush on her cheeks, Rouge accepts the crimson-red and white flower. She snickers a little, "Clever Espio. Very clever."

"What?"

"Giving a girl that's feeling down a flower." She answers.

"This was not to cure your sadness, that was merely my thanks for tending to my wound." He replies.

"Mm-hmm. Sure Espio..." she mutters, seeing clear through the chameleon's lie.

Those were the last words spoken for a while, the two mobians relaxing as the "raft" drifts downstream. After about ten or so minutes, the two are in trouble again.

Along both shores can clearly be seen about twenty curled-up Metal Grunts, ten on each side, rolling fast enough to keep up with the swift moving current that was carrying their prey. "Great, they've brought friends." Rouge mutters, clearly upset that the robots were so persistent.

"Its not a problem Rouge." Espio states. "The robots are restricted to the ground. As long as we stay on the river, they can't reach us."

What Espio had said seemed to be true...none of the robots tried to approach the river. Then again, they weren't _trying_ to get those two in the first place. All of those rolling spheres knew the layout of this jungle's terrain, which meant they knew about a very important landmark that was up ahead. All the robots had to do, was follow along to make sure Rouge and Espio found it.

"Hey Espio? Do you hear something?" Rouge asks after about thirty seconds.

"Indeed...it seems like..." He looks down the river. "Waterfall!"

Sure enough, a big old waterfall was coming up, and it was a tall one complete with a mist cloud near the top and bottom from the churning waters, the characteristic roar of a waterfall, and terrible looking rapids down at the base that masked the clump of large rocks waiting below.

Rouge and Espio appear to be trapped, on either side was a large group of robots, and they were on a one-way trip over the edge of that waterfall. Only a few more seconds pass before the branch goes over the edge, at which point the robots uncurl to watch as it plummets down into the misty cloud several hundred feet below. Even though it left their view, the resounding thud and snapping of wood against the rocks, followed by the wood pulp getting flushed downstream confirms it...the two were smashed to pieces on the rocks.

"_Targets Rouge and Espio..._" The robot can't finish its sentence, the sound of footsteps from behind stops it. The robot and its other nine buddies on that side of the river turn and quickly bow.

"Are they gone?" the figure asks. No details could be picked out, it was hidden in the shade of a tree and the foliage of some bushes. Its voice, although having an electronic undertone, almost seemed female.

"_Yes M-006._" The robot from before says. "_Rouge and Espio were smashed to bits on the rocks below._"

"Are you sure?" The figure asks, skepticism riddling its voice. "Do you have any proof other than you just 'saw them'?"

"_Well..._" the robot hesitates, "_No..._"

Before it could say another word, the figure lunges out of the shadows, cuts the speaking robot clean in half, then retreats back into the shadows before the others knew what happened.

"You idiotic buckets of bolts!" the figure yells. "Are you not aware that Rouge is capable of flying? Go down there and make sure that their bodies are lying cold and lifeless on the shore!"

All nineteen robots stand and salute the figure before curling up and rolling down the rocky sides of the waterfall. The figure walks up to the side and watches as the robots roll down, then says aloud, "Knowing those things, half of them will smash against the ground and break." It then laughs a laugh of sadistic pleasure, "Like I care. As long as M-008's factory isn't discovered, we can make as many of those one-digit IQ machines as we want."

The figure backs up a little before running up to and leaping off the side of the waterfall. Instead of falling though, the figure takes flight and soars off, returning to the concealed base in this region.

* * *

Just like it thought, the mobians did manage to escape the waterfall, although right at the last second. Rouge was able to run up the branch, grab Espio around the middle, and fly into the canopy of a tree using the mist cloud as cover. Right now, the two were resting on a tree branch, peering out through the leaves at the robots who (again like the figure guessed) had their numbers cut in half upon reaching the lower elevation.

Using a voice low enough so only Rouge could hear, Espio actually gives out a rare compliment. "Very good Rouge. That trick is enough to make a ninja master jealous."

"Really?" Rouge asks, surprised at the compliment. "How do you know?"

"Because I'm jealous."

Rouge suppresses a giggle, instead she chooses to playfully punch Espio in the arm. "You know. This is a lot more fun now that you're opening up." she pauses, "Come on, lets get out of here."

Espio nods before the two quickly run away from the river, Espio swinging through the tree branches and Rouge flying around them. Being a spy and a ninja were both great talents to have when it came to making a silent getaway, and that's just what those two do without even drawing a twitch from one of the robots.

The two continue in silence until they're confident that no robots are around to hear them. "Your shoulder doing okay?" Rouge asks, ducking under a tree branch in the process.

"Its fine Rouge. Your makeshift bandage is actually holding real well." Espio replies, using a vine to swing past a couple of really dense trees. "But you shouldn't worry about me, the presence of robots means there's a base here, and we have to find it."

"Hey, we can look for a base, but I'm going to keep an eye on you too." Rouge counters, "It won't do to have one of us get critically injured out here. I'll watch your back and you watch mine, deal?"

"Deal...and I'm assuming you mean it in the figurative sense."

Rouge rolls her eyes.

The two hurry through the jungle, looking for any robots that might've meant they were getting closer to a base. They didn't have to wait long...just up ahead was all the proof they needed.

A loud roar resonates through the forest before a large, and I mean _large_, buzz-saw tears through the trees, toppling them like they were dominoes. Where did a saw that was fifteen-feet in diameter come from? The answer stood in the clearing right ahead in the form of a huge, jungle-green and mud-brown robotic ape.

The metal monkey stood at least twenty-feet high and resembled a gorilla in build and body shape. It had somewhat short, stocky legs, a big muscular body and arms, and a medium-sized head with a tall forehead. Two piercingly gold eyes peered down at the two mobians and while its left hand was normal, its right was the giant buzz-saw from before.

The ape begins ook-ing while pounding its chest with its hand. "_Intruders spotted!_" it yells in a somewhat eager voice."_Metal Gorilla will crush intruders!_" it adds before revving up its buzz-saw and taking a swing at the two. While it might've been great for felling trees, the bulky weapon was easily dodged by the two agile heroes.

"You got anymore zap rings?" Espio asks, running up a tree to get a better shot with a couple kunai.

"I've got one, but he's too big for it to work." Rouge replies, flying up to a better vantage point as well.

"_Trees will not save you!_"the robot yells, using its saw to cut down the trees that they were hiding in. The two leap away to the safety of another tree.

"Any ideas?" Rouge asks.

"Perhaps his eyes are a weak spot...Rouge! Distract him!" Espio yells in reply, just before the buzz-saw slashes through their new tree.

"You got it!" Rouge replies before flying out into full view. She whistles to get the big robot's attention, then yells. "Is that supposed to be a saw? I can cut more with a piece of string!"

With that insult enraging the machine, it swung its buzz-saw at Rouge who easily flew out of the way. "Come on! Can't you hit _anything_?"

While Rouge was busy aggravating the robot and drawing its attention, an invisible Espio manages to sneak close enough to a leg to cling onto it. He quickly runs up the leg and then up the back of the machine without being detected at all. From the back he climbed its neck then onto the upper lip area until he was staring into one of its big golden eyes.

In an instant he pulls out a kunai that was tied to a chain and tosses the sharp dagger into the eye, only scratching the casing. Espio planned for this however, and began to whip the blade around by the chain to try and find a weak spot.

Finally noticing it had a visitor, the Metal Gorilla began to shake its head from side to side, trying to shake off the invisible attacker. No luck, Espio's ninja skills let him hold fast to the robot's face, but he wasn't able to attack anymore.

"Espio! Let go! Its not working!" Rouge yells.

Espio becomes visible again and leaps from the flailing robot, plummeting in the air until Rouge catches him. "Got a plan B?" she asks the chameleon hanging from her hands, she had a hold of him from the under-arms.

"Maybe...I'm not sure of how strong that armor is though."

"Maybe nothing, get on it!"

"I'll need my arms back."

Rouge nods before flying close enough to a tree behind the Metal Gorilla to drop off Espio. She only hangs around long enough to say "I'll go back to keeping big and ugly busy, whistle when you're ready." before flying off again. Immediately Espio sets to work.

It didn't take him long, since only a minute or so after she dropped him off, Rouge's sensitive hearing picks up a whistle. As fast as she could fly, Rouge darts into the tree, grabs Espio's right hand and flies off again. "Need anything else?"

"Get me closer."

"Got it." Rouge answers before flying dangerously close to the machine, which had managed to turn around to face them.

Using his free hand, Espio tosses three more kunai at the mechanical monkey, and all three manage to stab into the glass covering its left eye.

"That was it?" Rouge asks, dumb-struck by the apparent weakness of Espio's plan B.

"Wait for it..." Espio says.

Three seconds later, the glass casing around the eye blows apart from three explosions, which were actually strong enough to make the robot stagger a little. "Think a zap ring to the _inside_ of it will finish this?"

"Its in the cuff of my left glove." Rouge replies.

Espio nods before reaching up and (with a little difficulty) removing the stealth weapon from Rouge's glove. The bat flies around again for Espio to throw it, and he lands a perfect toss right into the exposed circuitry. The two wince as their ears pick up the crackling of electricity and the small explosions of overloading circuits as Rouge's weapon does its job.

The two land to admire their work...a twitching, green and brown, monstrous gorilla robot. "I don't know why..." Rouge begins, closing her eyes and looking quite pleased. "But its really satisfying to..."

"Rouge!" Espio yells, tackling her off to the side. Half-a-second later, the robot's saw slices into the earth where she was standing. The robot wasn't destroyed after all, it was starting to malfunction...and by malfunction, it was starting to swing its spinning saw wildly in every which direction.

"Damn!" Rouge exclaims, "I thought for sure that would work."

"Rouge, I've got one more trick." Espio says, pulling out a small slip of paper from the cuff of his right glove. "This ought to finish it off once and for all."

If Espio wasn't a ninja, Rouge would've thought he was joking. He was about to ask for another lift, when he suddenly grunts and clasps a hand to his shoulder...his right shoulder...the bandaged one.

"Oh crap..." Rouge mumbles, realizing that she had been holding Espio by his wounded arm all this time. "Espio I'm so sorry."

"There's no time for that!" He yells, "Here..." he slides a finger across the middle of the paper, "You've got twenty seconds before this activates...get it in his eye."

Rouge nods before taking the paper and then leaving the ground. She flies as fast as possible towards the eye, dodging one of the Metal Gorilla's wild swings along the way. Once at the machine's eye level, Rouge only has seven seconds left. She knows that wasn't enough time to fly over there, and she couldn't throw a flimsy sheet of paper...wait, that's it!

Rouge tosses the paper in front of her, then begins to whip up a gust with her wings. The paper flutters wildly in the wind before getting blown along with it...right towards the robot's broken eye.

_Come on you stupid thing...get in there..._ Rouge thinks, putting all of her strength into causing the windstorm. Luckily, the paper gets in there with one second left on its timer. Immediately the robot flails around as the paper begins to mimic Rouge's zap ring. With another dose of the potent electrical burst, the Metal Gorilla finally succumbs.

It sways to the left, then to the right, then collapses on the ground with a metallic groan.

Panting hard from her trick, Rouge lands to Espio's left and weakly totters in place. "Easy Rouge." He calmly says, offering her his left shoulder to lean on. The support was quickly taken. "Again I admit, you've pulled off a trick like a ninja master."

"Heh, guess I did...phew I'm tired, flying you around then using up all of my strength to cause a windstorm. Hey, how did you get that paper to do that anyway?"

"Special ninja trick Rouge...a special, _secret_ trick."

"Fine...although I would've just accepted 'I don't know' as well."

"Hey, I..."

"Relax Espio..." Rouge laughs, "I'm just joking."

Espio doesn't respond verbally...but he does change his expression to the tiniest of smirks. "Come along Rouge. I'll help you until your strength is back." he says.

True to his word, Espio and Rouge walk off into the jungle away from the wreck of the Metal Gorilla...Espio's arm around Rouge's back to keep her upright. Although she normally would've protested...for some reason, she didn't.

She didn't know why, but...she kinda liked having Espio help her out. It was very sweet of him to do that...

**

* * *

**

Yet another mystery presents itself...who are M-006 and M-008? (cackles evilly) That's for me to know and you to find out. Well, in honest words, Misty Jungle was inspired by the Frog Forest (from Sonic Heroes) and Green Forest (from Sonic Adventure 2) stages. What kind of new environment and robots will present themselves in the next chapter? You'll see...

Oh, and this mainly goes out to those of you who've requested I read a story of theirs. I have started on them and I am trying...but homework keeps getting in the way. The only reason I can update is because I actually write some parts during my free-time at school, but I can't access FF without getting in trouble. Please do be patient...homework (sadly) has priority over this.


	9. Frigid Caverns

**My deepest apologies for the delay...but I had finals to take care of. However, summer has now started so I'm free to work on this and all of my stories all day. For all of you who have asked me to read their stories, the wait is almost over, I'm starting on that tomorrow. Also, I've been forgetting to say this for awhile, but each of these little sub-plots is happening simultaneously...just wanted to say that in case it wasn't apparent.**

**'Kay, apart from mentioning that this was partially inspired by Sonic Unleashed's Holoska stages and part of the Icecap level from Sonic Adventure 1, I'm done. Go ahead and enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 9 Frigid Caverns

While Rouge and Espio were...having fun in the jungle at the south end of the continent, Knuckles and Shade had gone the exact opposite path and were currently slogging through the snow covered lands in the region called Blue Ridge Zone, far to the north on the continent.

Despite the cold...it was kinda peaceful. Thousands of snowflakes lazily drifting down from the sky, their buddies that had already fallen forming a flawless sheet of white that stretched to the horizon, only interupted every now and then by some trees sprouting out of the snow. The sky itself was a lazy gray color...all in all, it was quite calming if one ignored the cold temperatures.

"Geez...I'm really hoping there's something worthwhile here." Knuckles states, "I'm freezing my tail off."

"Its not much better in here." Shade says through her battle armor's helmet. "This suit's not the best of insulators."

"Good thing you're so tough." Knuckles mumbles.

"What?"

"Nothing." The male echidna quickly replies, a near unspottable amount of blush becoming present.

"Okay...so where do you want to look next? Everything looks..." Shade suddenly stops her sentence, whipping around to look behind them while extending her blade.

"What?"

She doesn't answer right away, actually...a few seconds pass before she even moves at all. Shade deeply exhales, withdraws her blade and turns to Knuckles. "Just thought I heard something following us."

"You sure its not just some critter?"

"Why would anything want to be out in this?" Shade counters.

Knuckles grunts, "Good point," He suddenly shivers, "Come on, if I don't start moving I'll freeze right here."

The two echidnas keep stomping through the thick snow, but several feet behind them was something else...

...a big blue and white spike was following them, the rest of itself hidden beneath the snow's surface.

After about fifteen or so minutes of walking, the spike finally makes its move, bursting out of the snow and slugging Shade in the back. The echidna girl gets tossed forward with a gasp as the Metal Grunt lands and (due to its weight) sinks back into the snow, its spike sticking above the surface like a shark's fin.

Knuckles growls at the robot before leaping down at it, breaking its spike off with a solid punch. The mad echidna then flips the spike around and drives it back into the robot's head, causing it to well, break.

Once the robot stopped moving, Knuckles hurried back to the snow's surface and (as fast as he could move on the slushy ground) hurries over to Shade's side.

"Shade, you okay?" he asks, helping her up.

The other echidna hisses a little while rubbing at the spot the robot punched. "I'm fine, luckily the armor took most of the blow." Shade suddenly winces, "It still stings like crazy though."

"Can you walk?" A nod, "Alright, come on." The two set off again.

Their luck only gets worse, not even two minutes after the robot attacked, the wind begins to howl and the snowfall intensifies. Knuckles braces himself against the wind and uses himself as a shield for Shade.

"What's going on?" He yells, only to be heard over the wind.

"A storm's coming, we need to find shelter now!" Shade yells back.

"How? I can't see a damn thing!"

"Dig Knuckles! Dig!"

Knuckles nods to her before leaping into the air, returning as a spinning red drill. The male echidna plows into the snow, sending it everywhere before reaching the ground. Little chunks of earth and permafrost get tossed out of the hole he's making before it suddenly stops.

"Hey Shade we're in luck! I found a tunnel!" Knuckles yells up to her. Without a second thought, Shade jumps down the hole to land in Knuckles' arms, surveying the tunnel to find that it was well...a tunnel of ice, stretching onward into inky blackness in both directions.

"Great, as if it wasn't already cold enough outside." She mutters, clearly not a fan of chilly temperatures.

"At least we've only got two choices now."

"True..." Shade's voice dies off as it dawns on just where she was. With a yell she lurches out of Knuckles' arms, steadying herself about a foot away and blushing like mad under her helmet.

"You alright?" Knuckles densely asks.

"Yea, yea...I'm fine." Then adds as a thought, _Not like landing bridal-style in your arms had anything to do with it._

"Well, if you're alright..." Knuckles indifferently says, turning to head down one direction of the tunnel.

"How do you know that's the right way?"

"I don't." Knuckles replies.

Shade shrugs before following. Over the next minutes, the light slowly grows darker and darker, and more and more Knuckles has to use the glow from Shade's armor to light his way. Not like that helped much, the glow was so weak that it only offered a few inches of view.

"Great, I can hardly see my hand in front of my..." Knuckles sentence is cut off as he goes tumbling down some kind of hole with a yell. Shade, not being able to stop on the slippery ice, quickly follows with a similar shriek.

Turns out that the "hole" was actually something much worse...an ice slide. The tunnel had suddenly dipped downward at such a steep angle, that both echidnas were plopped on their rears and forced to endure a high-speed, gut-wrenching ride in near total-darkness.

They couldn't see anything, but they could definitely feel the tunnel and boy did it suck. Steep banks to the left and right, sudden hills before a steep drop, Shade and Knuckles could've sworn that there was even a loop-de-loop somewhere along the line. Finally, after a nausating five-minute ride, both echidnas are spit out into a large cavern, Shade landing next to Knuckles.

"Ohh..." Knuckles groans, his head spinning from the insane ride. "How the hell does Sonic handle stuff like that?"

"I don't...I..." Shade can't finish. As fast as she could, the peach-colored echidna removes her helmet, touching a symbol on the hair-band which causes that part of the armor to fade away, and...well...pukes her breakfast out.

"Eww..." she groans once finished, "I can taste it..." she shudders.

"Well don't share!" Knuckles yells, "Do you want me to hurl as well?"

"Sorry."

Knuckles waves it off, "You otherwise okay?"

"I guess."

"_Warning! Warning! Warning! Intruders detected! Intruders detected!_" Yells a mechanical voice. The echidnas finally take in the surroundings to find a well lit cavern around them, with large crystal formations everywhere. The lighting came from mining lamps that were set up by a band of (what else?) Metal Grunts, about ten of them. Upon noticing the echidnas, all ten of them began to charge, which was not good for the still ill mobians.

Knuckles throws a rather sloppy punch, but is still able to dent the closest Metal Grunt. However, because of the sloppiness, Knuckles really didn't faze the robot, and quickly got slugged across the face.

Shade, despite puking just seconds ago, was faring a little better. She had managed to stab out the eyes one of the robots with her Leech Blade, and was currently perched on the back of a second, draining its energy into her suit. The robot finally runs out of energy, just as Shade hears a third approaching from behind, and wrenches her blade out with just enough time to dodge a punch.

The peach echidna skids on the icy floor, then aims her left palm at a crowd of robots that were charging towards Knuckles. Using some of the extra energy she pulled out of that robot, Shade forms a purple energy sphere in her palm, then releases it. The energy sphere whizzes across the cavern and strikes the group of robots and explodes, scattering them like billiard balls.

"Thanks Shade!" Knuckles calls out. His senses were starting to heal, as the red echidna's next punch knocked the head clean off the robot he was aiming at.

"No problem!" she calls back, just before whipping around to roundhouse kick a robot into some of the crystals. The unlucky robot gets impaled on the sharp points and twitches a little before powering down for good.

Now there was just six left, and one didn't count since it was blind. Knuckles and Shade stand side-to-side for a few seconds, staring the robot pack down before glancing at each other. "You remember our combo move?" Shade asks.

"Couldn't forget it. On your mark." Knuckles replies, his fists clenching.

"Now!" Shade yells, causing her and Knuckles to charge forward. Shade uses the remainder of the extra energy to form another energy sphere, which gets chucked at and blows apart one of the grunts. Suddenly the two were in front of another grunt, thanks to a quick Warp Belt jump from Shade, and that robot gets sliced in half by a double uppercut.

From there the two destroy two other bots, Knuckles by punching through the face and Shade by stabbing through the same area. Knuckles was about to turn on the other two (or one, if you don't count the blind one), but Shade beat him to it. The peach echidna quickly stuns the blinded one with a stab, then takes it by the hand and throws it into the last un-damaged one.

Their metal bodies crunch a littlle before Shade delivers the final blow. Hopping atop the two bodies, she jabs down on the blind one with a quick stomp, smashing its head apart, before spinning and slamming the heel of her boot into the head of the other.

Knuckles only watches as the peach echidna coolly hops down from the robot wrecks and walks up to him. "Well, looks like you didn't need any help." he says.

"Oh don't be so grumpy Knuckles. Just because I broke more robot than you did..."

"That's beside the point." he sourly replies, crossing his arms and looking away. Shade rolls her eyes before looking around the cavern...but there really wasn't much...

The only other thing apart from the lights is some kind of large mining machine, incomplete in construction. It looked almost like the cab of a semi-truck fused to the side of its box trailer at the back, and up at the front of the "trailer" was the drill.

"Do you really think there could be an emerald down here Knuckles?" Shade asks to her fellow echidna, who was up in the cockpit of the drilling rig. He had quickly clambered up there to see if the robots left anything of use in the cockpit. Nothing but an semi-assembled control panel.

"Don't know if there is or not but..." He releases a yell while thrusting a fist into the control panel, utterly destroying it. "They won't be able to use this thing to help."

"Alright Knuckles you've had your fun, lets go now. I see another tunnel we can use."

"Lets hope its not another slide!" Knuckles jokes, hopping down from the cockpit and following the peach echidna down a (thankfully) lit tunnel.

Anxious to find something that would actually be useful to their investigation, Knuckles and Shade hurry down the tunnel, only having to destroy one more Metal Grunt along the way. The robot got blindsighted by a double echidna uppercut...and was soon thereafter in two pieces.

The tunnel seems endless...Knuckles and Shade had been running for a good ten minutes and not even so much as a fork has been found. There was so little happening, that to pass the time, the two actually start a conversation.

"So Shade? How were things in the Twilight Cage after we...uh...left."

Shade glances away, "I...don..." She sighs, stubborn Knuckles was never going to accept the answer she was planning to give. "It was miserable Knuckles. We took down Ix, but the Nocturnus Clan is still loyal to that heartless jerk. I tried to bring about a new way of thinking, but they wouldn't listen...instead I was persecuted."

"Whoa...slow down." Knuckles says, as he and Shade slide to a stop. "Persecuted? You mean like, chased and hated?"

Shade nods. "By speaking of peace instead of war, the Nocturnus felt as though I was a traitor, and I was hunted for weeks. The police caught me after...I got beaten up by a crowd...and literally dragged me to jail. I was convicted of treason and got thrown in the...torture room."

"The torture room?" Knuckles repeats.

"Its a horrific room, designed to torture the worst of criminals...on a half-hourly basis, this violent, painful electrical bolt courses through you, but since you're hooked up to a life-support machine...you can't die from it." Suddenly Shade breaks down from the memories, tears spilling from her eyes while she falls to her knees. "Four days Knuckles! I was trapped in that accursed room for four. Damn. Days! It was horrible...my clan, my family; they turned on me...my friends were back in their own dimension...I was alone. Alone and in so much pain that I wished I was dead!"

She sobs a little before adding, "I-I think it was a little after one of the shocks that Dusk and Shadow opened that strange portal and sucked me back through...but that was still after so many shocks that I lost count!"

This remembering...it was painful in more ways than one. The memories did hurt, they hurt a lot, but there was also the fact the she, who had been trained to show little emotion, was now bawling her eyes out, in front of the guy she has a crush on. The guy that she wanted to show that she was strong, just as strong as he was if not more so, and had just done so by destroying most of their attackers back in the cavern. Now she was showing weakness...but it just hurt so much.

"Shade, I understand why you didn't want to talk about this, but..." Knuckles pauses, trying to think of the right words. It was normally Sonic or Tails who calmed down the sobbing girl, not him. "You can't...keep that kind of pain in. Its not good for you."

"But what else was I supposed to do Knuckles? I was trained as an elite soldier, I'm not supposed to show emotion like this! I don't know _how_ to talk about this!"

With every sob she released, Knuckles' heart got more and more torn. He was known for strength, stubborness, solidity, and general apathy...but even he broke down when a friend was in tears like this. Espicially this certain friend. He knelt down in front of Shade, and (slowly) put his arms around her.

"Its...its okay Shade. Its okay to feel betrayed and to cry over painful things...but...just remember this..." he pulls away enough to lift her head to look into her eyes. Those magenta eyes had turned red from the sobbing, but they were still beautiful. "You are here with friends who care about you, and they are trapped in some hideous dimension with a bunch of races that hate them. _You_ are the winner, not them." He adds extra emphasis on "you" to get his point across.

A pause, during which Shade was able to smile a little.

"Oh my emerald...Knuckles just cheered someone up!" He exclaims, seeming to have surprised himself.

That comment got Shade to giggle a little before she asks, "So...its...okay to be just a teenage girl that knows how to fight?"

"Wouldn't have it any other way." Knuckles answers before he could think about it.

A near-invisible amount of blush appears on Shade's cheeks before she quickly pecks Knuckles on his cheek...turning them the same color as the rest of his fur. "Come on." Shade says, the tears gone and her voice oozing with confidence. "Lets see if we can't find out what Metal Sonic's planning here."

"That's the spirit!" Knuckles cheers before the two take off down the tunnel again.

After another ten minutes of running, then two wind up in an even bigger cavern, this one with several of the drilling machines chipping away at the walls and at least a hundred Metal Grunts walking around. Luckily for the two echidnas, the tunnel exit was right next to a large piles of rocks, and they were able to hide before getting spotted.

"Great...there's no way that the two of us can fight through all of those machines." Knuckles mutters.

"Oh knock it off mister pessimist." Shade replies, "A direct approach isn't always the best one."

"You've got an idea?"

"Maybe...I just hope they have steering wheels."

"What?"

"Those big drills, if I can...borrow one, I might be able to get the two of us out of here.

"Going for a joyride in a piece of heavy machinery?" Knuckles asks, "Awesome..."

Shade rolls her eyes. There are some things about guys that are universally true, even if the guy is an echidna living on a floating island guarding the world's largest jewel.

"Alright, we'll go for the nearest one..." she trails off while peeking around the rocks. "Its a ways away though...we might be able to...hurry Knuckles! Grab hold of me!"

"What?"

Shade groans. "Never mind!" She exclaims, grabbing Knuckles around the arm and triggering her Warp Belt, teleporting the two atop the drilling machine. While she was peeking around the rocks, a couple of the robots caught sight of her and sounded the alarm. Now, all of them were either charging towards the machine they were on, or running for the weapon racks.

"Shade!" Knuckles exclaims, a bit disoriented from the sudden teleport.

"Knuckles, if any robots get up here, knock 'em off. I'm getting behind the wheel." Shade instructs, hopping down to the roof of the cab, then flipping down into the cab through the open doorway. The peach echidna stabs the driver, then pushes him out of the cabin.

Luckily for her, there was a steering wheel and a couple pedals. Compared to the Nocturnus Warships, this thing was like an artifact from the Stone Age, but she did learn a bit about this dimension's tech when working for Ix, and luckily driving is one of them.

Shade shifts the machine into reverse, backing up over some of the Metal Grunts, then flips it into forward, and only goes slowly enough to turn towards the only tunnel big enough to fit the rig. At that point, Shade slams the gas pedal to the floor, causing this machine's engine to roar, the rig to lurch forward, and speed off down the tunnel, crushing the Metal Grunts in its way like bugs.

The giant machine roars down the tunnel, its engine's rumble reverberating off the walls and making it sound like the tunnel was snarling at them. Knuckles knew that Shade was driving fast, since the wind was whipping his dreadlocks into a frenzy, but he was used to these kinds of winds from Angel Island, so it wasn't a problem. Unfortuneately, their escape wasn't as smooth as it looked...several of the luckier robots had managed to grab hold of the drill before Shade took charge, which Knuckles found that out when he heard their clanking footsteps.

Knuckles is able to turn around in time to dodge the robot's punch, then socks it off the driller. The last two met an almost as peaceful state, one got punched off, but the third got tossed onto the still spinning drill and ripped to shreds.

With a little laughter, Knuckles turns around to see a sight that made his face fall. The rest of the miners were chasing the driller in their ball form and were gaining.

He was stubborn, and rarely did he ever worry...but even Knuckles the Echdina can't fight off an army of cranky hops down to the cab roof and pokes his head in through the doorway. "Shade! We've got followers!"

"This thing won't go any faster Knuckles! You want to drive?!" She yells back.

"You'll take care of those things?"

"I've still got enough spare power in this suit for one more energy blast. Its not much, but it should slow them down."

"Give it a shot, can you warp out?"

"Not with it going this fast, can you pull me out?"

Knuckles reaches out with a hand, grabs Shade and pulls out and up to the roof. Once Shade was on the roof, Knuckles flips down and resumes driving while Shade walks to the back to see the approaching spheres.

The peach echidna takes a deep breath, then charges another purple sphere in her palm. Once the sphere got to a reasonable size, Shade flings it not at the robots, but up into the ceiling instead. The attack blows huge chunks of ice and rock into the tunnel behind the driller, smashing most of the crowd and blocking the path for the others. Only about five made it past the rockfall.

"Great." She mutters, walking back over to the cab and flipping inside, landing in Knuckles' lap.

"Any luck?" Knuckles asks, blushing a little that such a girl as Shade was sitting on his lap.

"I got all but five." Shade replies. "I'd move, but there's nowhere else to go."

"Oh no no, this is fine...I can still kinda see." Knuckles says.

Shade smiles a little to herself then turns to look out the windshield...just in time to see the tunnel end and the driller burst out into a snowy field. Luckily, the wheels weren't sinking into the snow, the rig was going so fast it just breezed right over the loose material. Unluckily though, there was another tunnel up ahead which has several Metal Grunts standing outside, and they seem to be calling for help.

The driller roared right past the guards and managed to fit in the tunnel, but only just. The sides were scraping against the tunnel walls and the drill was tossing several chunks of rock back every now and then.

"Hope we don't get stuck." Knuckles comments, doing his best to keep the driller from slowing down.

"Me too," she glances behind them, "Duck!"

Both echidnas duck their heads down in time to let a large blob of energy burst through the back window and out the windshield. Upon looking back, they see a quickly receding Metal Grunt toss down its bazooka before curling up and giving chase...the little robot was hiding in an alcove that the driller had sped right on by.

The machine is able to outrun the rolling menaces for a while longer until finally this tunnel ends. That wasn't good however, since the second the driller bursts out of the tunnel, it gets shot clear through the engine. Not a second passes before another shot comes and knocks the drill off, then two more blow off two of the six tires.

The crippled machine grinds to halt and the echidnas struggle out of the cockpit, only to find themselves surrounded. At least fifty Metal Grunts were there, and a good thirty had bazookas on their shoulders. Even worse were two Metal Cannons standing in the crowd as well, their big guns trained on the echidnas.

Both Knuckles and Shade back away a little, trying to figure out some way of winning...but there didn't seem to be any. They were on some kind of artificial plateau on a mountain-side, in front of them, the crowd of robots, to the right, a rock wall, behind them was the slope down but the driller was in the way, and to the left was the tunnel, which quickly got blocked by the eight Metal Grunts that were chasing them.

"Got any ideas?" Shade whispers.

"Its going to be risky...but I've got one..." Knuckles whispers back. "Get ready to move."

Suddenly he slams his fist into the ground and knocks a large rock into the air. That rock is promptly grabbed and tossed up at the moutainside...where nothing happens.

One of the Metal Cannons laughs at Knuckles' idea. "_What a failure...it is time to die echidnas._"

"Oh really?" Knuckles asks, "Because the mountain has other ideas."

Sure enough, once Knuckles' words ended, a loud rumbling begins to emanate from up higher on the mountain. Each and every robot turns to look, and (if their faces could show expression) their faces would've fallen...

...Knuckles started an avalanche.

"That's your idea?!" Shade yells, "Starting an avalanche?! We'll get caught in it too!"

"Not if we hurry!" Knuckles yells, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the drill. With a mighty jump, Knuckles was able to get himself and Shade atop the giant tool...just before the avalanche swept through the plateau.

The drill, like everything else, gets pulled away, but stays afloat on the snowy rapids while everything else got buried. Knuckles and Shade were surfing the avalanche on a giant drill which was proving to be (surprisingly) quite stable.

"Ye-e-e-ha-aaw!" Knuckles yells as his adrenaline flares into overdrive, "Ain't this great Shade?!"

"Apart from being terrifying, yes!" Shade replies.

After a quick ride down their mountain, the drill, the echidnas, and the avalanche fall down a deep ravine into yet another cavern. Luckily Shade was able to teleport them off the drill and onto solid ground before it crashed into the ground and was buried under the snow.

"So now were are we?" Shade asks.

"Don't know, but look." Knuckles points off to another tunnel and some mining lights, "Those robots are down here too."

"There are tons of those things here...which means Metal Sonic's got plans for this place."

Knuckles glances at Shade with a smirk, "Want to ruin those plans?"

"Its like you read my mind." Shade replies.

The two quickly take off down the tunnel, anxious to get back to robot smashing.

**

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**

So how was this chapter? The emotional bit okay? In the game Shade actually escaped with Sonic and the others, but I didn't notice her in the ending cinematic...so I had to improvise a little. And seeing how devilish those Nocturnus were, they didn't seem like the type to change their ways easily. Anyway, its good to be back and leave me a kind review! I'll be getting to all of your stories tomorrow!


	10. Sunset Coast

**I should probably warn you that future progress**** is going slowly not only because of two other stories that are in need of attention, but also because I'm currently learning Japanese. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, since I move through the lessons at my pace, but I'm trying to get through enough to force away one of my classes for the next school year, and that amount is a LOT.**

**But you came here to read stories, not listen to my issues, so go on ahead and enjoy Chapter 10. And if you wouldn't mind wishing me luck for the lessons, I'd greatly appreciate it!**

* * *

Chapter 10 Sunset Coast

A shrill whistle pierces the otherwise calm air at a secluded beach on the east coast of the continent. Almost like the air was retaliating, a sudden breeze blows up the cliff that the whistler was standing on, blowing her skirt up a little, but all it reveals is her purple tail and the hips of her black trousers.

"If I had known that we were going to the beach, I'd have brought my bikini." Dusk says aloud, not bothering to look back at Shadow, who was standing a few feet behind her.

Like the purple hedgehog said, Shadow had lead them to a beach, and a very beautiful one at that. The sandy expanses were interrupted every now and then by a large hill or cliff, but the rock was a captivating rust-red color. This normally difficult terrain to cross was actually concealing a network of various pathways, some leading to the beach, others to cliff-tops, and some just going around in a big circle. The ocean itself was calm and a glittering sapphire blue, only broken by the occasional slate gray rock spire or arcing sandbar. Because of the time zones Shadow teleported them through, it was just about sunset, and the star's rays were drawing fascinating black shadows everywhere, with the ones over water rippling along with the surface...perfect for the umbrakinetic.

"You know we're not here for a vacation Dusk, we're here to find emeralds," Shadow states, "This is a few miles from where we fought Metal Sonic several years ago, so its likely he's come back."

Dusk rolls her eyes while turning around. "Yea I know, I know. But honestly Shadow, can you really say you _don't_ want to see me in a bikini?" she asks while striking a pose with hands behind her head and her chest puffed out.

"I – uh...umm..." Shadow begins to stutter before an image of the posing Dusk springs to mind, only dressed in a bikini. His cheeks catch fire while Shadow shakes his head, trying to rid himself of the embarrassing thought.

The purple hedgehog laughs at her victory before yelling, "First one to the other side of the beach wins!" then leaping down the side of the cliff towards the sands. Shadow only hesitates for a second before following.

Dusk skates down the side of the cliff for about two seconds before leaping off, front-flipping in midair, the landing and taking off along the sands, kicking up plenty of the loose material in her wake; so much that Shadow actually has to move about two feet to the left to avoid getting sand tossed in his eyes.

The two skate along the beach for about fifty yards or so, although at the speeds they're traveling at it passes by in about two seconds, then turn and begin following one of the pathways cut through the hills. The path led them through a couple quick 90-degree turns before stretching out as a nice long straightaway, and it was there where Shadow was finally able to catch up to his girlfriend.

"Have I ever mentioned that you seem to have limitless energy sometimes?" Shadow asks, skating alongside Dusk in perfect sync.

"So? I'm just excited to finally have something happening...or maybe its this little baby's effect, who knows?" Dusk counters, tapping between her breasts at the word 'baby', the location of her hiding Sol Emerald.

"I've noticed something Dusk...every time you've come close to a Sol Emerald, you start acting differently."

"You're really trying to predict me?" Dusk asks, raising an eyebrow and giving Shadow a look that was asking 'are you serious?'.

"...I see your point. It seems true that all Roses are unpredictable."

Dusk laughs, "That's one thing you can't get rid of, no matter how hard you tinker with the DNA."

Shadow only sighs, at least his Rose was harder to annoy. Poor old Sonic's got the temperamental one while his is calmer...of course, the downside to this is when Dusk's temper does burst she probably gets even more dangerous than Amy.

"Duck!" Dusk suddenly yells out, snapping Shadow free of his little analysis. If it were anyone else, they'd have probably run full speed into the rocky-outcropping in their path, but Shadow wasn't called the Ultimate Life-Form for nothing. Several aspects of him...make that, nearly all aspects of him are far superior to anything natural and that includes reaction time.

The words barely grazed the insides of Shadow's ears before he rolled underneath the rocks jutting from the wall, then uncurled and continued skating on without missing a beat.

Dusk releases another whistle, "Handsome, powerful, a great kisser, and you're agile...is there nothing I don't love about you?" Dusk releases a sound that was a cross between a purr and a seductive moan, "I'm so lucky that you're all mine."

"Focus..."

"Killjoy." Dusk grumbles, turning as the path began to curve towards the left and go uphill.

Eventually, after a long uphill turn, Shadow and Dusk are now racing up at the top of the cliffs, and the path is directing them towards the ocean.

"Dusk, we need to turn." Shadow points out.

"You can turn if you want, I'm going full speed ahead!" Dusk replies, kicking her speed up to the next level and taking off like a shot towards the cliff's edge.

Shadow, worried for his girlfriend's safety, follows after her, but Dusk was going too fast. Before he knew it, she had already reached and sprung off the edge, shouting out a "Woo-hoo!" as she did so.

Those first few seconds after she got airborne seemed to pass by in slow motion for the purple hedgehog...like there was so much happening at once that the world was lagging behind. She could feel the wind of her speed blowing through her quills, making them sway gently despite the high speed, and pressing against her slender body, like she was lying on a soft mattress. Her eyes, feeling moist from the wind blowing into them, took in everything in front of her...the ocean constantly shifting between its normal blue hue and the colors it reflected from the sunset, slate-gray spires poking up out of the brilliant blue surfaces, the sandbars dotting the ocean's surface, some large enough for a small neighborhood others barely big enough to stand on, not even the orange and red sky and darkened clouds escaped her view. The purple hedgehog begins to grin so much that the Cheshire Cat would be jealous...she was on top of the world and she loved it. All of this, the wind, the colors, the excitement, it was all making her adrenaline skyrocket.

Slowly though, the world's lag became less and less noticeable as gravity began to take over. She was still going forward, but was now also starting to fall down towards the ocean. As much as she loved having herself go into overdrive, Dusk wasn't a stupid girl by any means. She had some level of location, and had noticed one sandbar in particular a good ways away from a cliff when she and Shadow were skating across the beach, and after following the path to the cliff top, Dusk realized that the two cliffs are the same.

Upon looking down, she finds that sandbar she had spotted before, and from above it looked like a crescent moon. _Alright, there you are...now to pull off a trick that'd make Shadow proud._ Dusk thinks, locking onto the largest, clearest part of the small island.

She pulls herself back, then thrusts all of her weight forward, doing it such a way that she begins to front-flip. Slowly this front-flipping converts Dusk from a falling girl to a spinning ball of purple as she pulls off a primitive mimic of Shadow's Spin Dash.

Faster and faster she falls towards the sandbar, and at the last second; she breaks out of the spins and lands in a crouching position, her back to the cliff she leapt off of, now about thirty or forty feet behind her. She pauses a second to recover from the landing, then stands up to come face to face with Shadow.

"Dusk!" He exclaims, "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"What?" She innocently asks, "I was just having a little fun. Who said I couldn't do that while looking for the emeralds?"

"If you wanted to come out here, you could've just asked for a Chaos Control." Shadow points out, his tone still saying he was unhappy with Dusk's surprise.

"Where's the fun in that?" Dusk replies. "Besides, leaping from that cliff has left me with a lot of energy to burn," Her voice trails off as she steps close to Shadow, "Perhaps you can help me with that?"

"Dusk, we've got more important things to take care off."

"Since when was anything, even the emeralds, more important than a make-out session with your girlfriend?" Dusk asks, upset that Shadow was denying her the affection she wanted.

"Since I've spotted a big robot with claws and an attitude." Shadow replies.

Dusk cocks an eyebrow which gets Shadow to gesture behind her, Dusk turns and gasps at the robot approaching them.

To put it simply, it was a lobster. An eight foot tall, blue, metal lobster. Two of its whisker/antennae things were held up in the air and its small glaring face was guarded on both sides by a large nasty looking claw. The only detail marking on this robot was a white arrow on the outer part of each claw, pointing inward to the claw's pointy end, and on the whiskers, pointing downward towards the robot's face.

The large robot makes a clicking noise before two hatches open on its shell, and out of each walk two Metal Grunts, which quickly train their eyes on the hedgehogs.

"Dusk, you ready?" Shadow asks.

"Do you have to ask? I'm going to make these guys pay for ruining our make-out session." Dusk replies, cracking her knuckles. Shadow only smiles, there was that temper that was so characteristic of her and her sister.

With a yell, Shadow hurls several Chaos Spears at the pair of grunts on the lobster's left, ruining both in one move, but not with the same spears. Dusk actually one-ups Shadow, taking down her pair with a single stab of a large shadow-tentacle, but to be fair she _did_ control its every movement.

"What now lobster?" Dusk asks, staring the bigger robot down. "Your buddies are gone and you're all alone."

The lobster makes that odd clicking noise again before roaring, and not a second passes before two more lobster-bots burst out of the ocean, crawl up on the sandbar, and surround the two mobians.

"You just had to ask." Shadow sarcastically says.

"Shut up. Are you going to get us out of here?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Shadow asks, mimicking her earlier tone.

"Good point." Dusk replies, quickly forming a shadow hammer in her hand and lunging at one of the robots, the same second Shadow Spin Dashes into a second.

Luckily for both mobians, the lobsters didn't seem to have much in the way of offense...but made up for it with incredibly thick armor. Both of the attacks just bounced off, not even causing as much as scratch, and the lobsters forced the two back with a swipe of their claws.

Dusk releases her shadow-hammer and takes over the shadow of the robot she tried to attack, growing out a large tentacle that grabs the robot around the tail. She grunts from the strain of trying to move such a heavy robot, but is still able to toss her bot into another...sad that all she did was cause a few dents.

Shadow however, was faring a little better with the help of his Chaos Emerald. He had just managed to blow off one of the claws with a small Chaos Blast, but the robot was now even madder at him. It clicks angrily before swiping with its only claw, but Shadow was able to duck under it and Spin dash into its face. It seems the hedgehog had found a soft spot in the armor, since his powerful tackle seemed to have shut down the opponent...it just rolled limply over onto its side.

"Dusk! Aim for the face!" Shadow yells.

"Done already." Dusk states, getting Shadow to turn and see the two other machines over on their sides.

"What? But...how did you get past the armor?"

"Turns out they had barely any cover from underneath. All I had to do was stab their bellies with a shadow and they rolled right over...pity though, now my energy rush has faded."

"Come on, perhaps a run will get you going again." Shadow says before barreling down the sandbar towards the end nearest the coastline, Dusk right on his tail.

Just before he hits the water, Shadow reaches back and grabs Dusk by the wrist, using a quick Chaos Control to get them off the island. Once their feet hit the beach, he lets go and starts accelerating, which prompts Dusk into smirking and doing the same.

They quickly depart from the beach to begin following another pathway through the hills, but barely two seconds are able to pass before they hear thuds from behind. Dusk and Shadow glance over their shoulders to see five cobalt blue spheres chasing them, and before Dusk could blink Shadow starts throwing Chaos Spears. No luck, the bolts of energy break against the armor. He tries again, only this time aiming for the rock wall way above and ahead of them.

The yellow bolts of energy come whizzing out of Shadow's hand and careen into the rocky wall, causing several explosions that knock loose several heavy boulders.

"Chaos, Control!" Shadow yells, grabbing Dusk's hand and slowing down time. Together the two shot clear ahead of the spheres, then allowed time to resume normal speed and watched the landslide bury the approaching enemies. Shadow lets a smile half-form on his face before turning to Dusk and saying, "Our race is still on." Then barreling off, leaving a streak of black behind him.

"You get back here Shadow!" Dusk yells, quickly speeding after her boyfriend.

The path stretches onward for another minute or so before quickly jerking to the right and leading to another beach, this one (like its kin) offered a breathtaking view of the rock spires and sandbars, but there was also something else, a giant dome out in the ocean. It appeared to be made of aqua-colored glass and had a steel-gray metal rim around its base where the waves were pounding. On its own, the dome could've easily been some kind of research station, but despite being about sixty yards away, Dusk and Shadow could still see Metal Lobsters swimming nearby and climbing onto the rim to repair corrosion.

That dome is one of Metal Sonic's bases, and that meant that Dusk and Shadow had to destroy it.

"Ready for another Chaos Control?" Shadow asks, glancing over at his girlfriend as they stood on the beach, watching the giant dome.

His answer would have to wait, suddenly the ocean burst open before a large object came crashing out, slamming itself into the beach barely three feet from the pair. The ocean burst on their other side, and another object came exploding out into the beach. Finally the ocean began to swell and bulge before an even bigger object lifted itself out, revealing that it was connected to the other two through a pair of arms.

This thing was a huge, crab robot, cobalt blue with white arrows decorating the claws and pointing down towards the face on the back of its shell. It had to have stood thirty feet tall, its claws at least eight or nine feet high and looking like they could crush anything. It had the same antennae as the Metal Lobsters, but like with everything one this thing they were much bigger. That's really all it was, a giant crab robot that was glaring down the mobians.

"Guess we've got to get past him first." Dusk mumbles, getting ready for any tricks. It was good she did that, since the crab quickly wrenched its left claw out of the beach and swung it at the two mobians, and only a shadow-shield keeps the attack from hitting.

While Dusk absorbed the hit, Shadow counters by using Chaos Control to warp himself atop the right arm, then skating up it towards the robot's body. Once he gets close enough, Shadow leaps off and uses a Homing Attack to nail the Metal Crab right in the eye.

The robot lashes backwards from the impact and roars while Shadow lands back on the beach, knocked there by the recoil. The Metal Crab shakes off the attack, clacks angrily, then dives back underwater.

It doesn't stay submerged for long though, it quickly resurfaces about five seconds later, scuttling out onto a large boulder above the ocean's waves. Strangely though, all it does is start clacking while bobbing its body up and down.

"Is...did it just start laughing?" Shadow asks, confused as to the robot's strange behavior.

Before an answer could come for him, a hatch right about where the mouth would be pops open, and a stream of hyper-pressurized water comes shooting out, barely missing as the mobians dive for it. When the attacks ends, Dusk and Shadow turn around to see that the Metal Crab had plowed a deep trench through the beach and into the rock cliff behind them.

"Oh crap..." Dusk mumbles, turning back just as the robot dives back underwater.

It quickly resurfaces near the beach and tries to slam the two with its claw, but misses again and only strikes the sand. Shadow, taking the opportunity again, leaps onto the arm and makes a beeline up it, hoping to land another Homing Attack. He does and once again the machine lurches around from the hit...but still seems to be more or less unharmed, save a few dents.

The robot roars and pops open its mouth again, deciding to blast the two mobians at close range. Within a second, Dusk had grabbed Shadow's arm and pulled him close while putting up a shadow shield between them and the water cannon. Half-a-second later, the water starts hammering against the black wall, but shadows prove to be more durable and the wall stands.

"Thanks." Shadow quickly says before Chaos Controlling himself atop the robot's back. The umber hedgehog quickly skates towards the face, leaps off the robot then Homing Attacks for a third time into the robot's eyes.

This time however, things quickly fall apart. While in mid-rebound, one of the Metal Crab's claws shoots out and clamps down on Shadow, pinning everything below his neck into place. While the coal black hedgehog struggles against the claw, having difficulty even using Chaos Control because of the crushing pain, the machine's eyes flash red and a deep voice announces, "_Self-destruct sequence initiated. T minus 60 seconds to detonation._" before the robots dives underwater, taking Shadow with it.

"Shadow!" Dusk yells as the robot gets swallowed beneath the waves. She takes a deep breath then runs full speed towards the ocean and leaps, diving underwater right where the Metal Crab went down.

In her peripheral vision, Dusk could see that there was a huge complex beneath the dome, but she was more interested in the Metal Crab, which was directly beneath her and quickly scuttling towards deeper waters, Shadow still pinned inside the robot's left claw. Dusk's expression turns serious as she darts straight towards the machine, managing to get a little help from her skates before they got waterlogged and unusable.

She manages to catch it in ten seconds and quickly swims towards Shadow. She cups her hand so there's a shadow to manipulate, then quickly grows out a tentacle and forces it between the two halves of the claw, then starts prying them apart.

It isn't easy, and soon the sickening sound of grinding metal rings out as the claws get forced open until finally, twenty seconds later, Shadow is freed. The bad luck doesn't stop there, since the black mobian just begins to float, his limbs hanging limply in the water.

Dusk quickly loops one of her arms around Shadow's middle, then starts swimming as hard as she can for the surface. The loss of her arm to support Shadow means that she has to go slower, and what's more is that her one breath was starting to wear thin. She couldn't stop though, only fifteen seconds till the Metal Crab and just a few more feet till she hits the surface...

First Dusk breaks the surface of the ocean with a gasp, then she lifts Shadow's head out of the water, and almost immediately he begins to cough. "Ch-chaos!" A particularly nasty cough, "Control!"

He and Dusk vanish in a flash of light, reappearing on the beach the second before the ocean's surface erupts from the Metal Crab's explosion. Shadow was down on his knees, coughing and sputtering while trying to get rid of the last bit of water in his lungs, while Dusk had collapsed onto her back, panting heavily while releasing the occasional cough.

"Damn that Metal Sonic," she groans, "Not only his robots are pain-in-the ass, but they almost killed my boyfriend."

"Thanks for that save Dusk." Shadow wheezes through his coughing, "Once this whole thing is over, I'm going to learn how to swim. Mind teaching me?"

"Not a bit Shadow." Dusk replies, "Perhaps we could rest a bit before trying to continue? My skates need some time to dry and so do I."

Shadow finally glances over at his girlfriend, seeing that her sopping wet clothes were sticking even tighter to her form...which was very attractive, especially with the pronounced rising and falling of her chest with each pant.

"Boyfriend or not, stare much longer and you're going to get smacked," Dusk warns. Shadow quickly glances away.

"At least that crab seems to have opened a way into the base for us." Shadow suddenly states.

"What are you talking about?" Dusk asks. Shadow points over to part of the cliff wall, where a big metal door was visible behind the rubble.

"When it shot your shield, some of the separated blast must've knocked away the camouflage."

"Lucky us...oh well, I'm not moving until I at least get my breath back." Dusk replies.

Shadow glances back to the girl, then moves closer and places a hand to her stomach. Almost immediately Dusk can feel a strange, tingling heat creep across her body from his hand, and being curious she asks, "What are you doing?"

"Gently releasing Chaos Energy from me to warm you up. I figure its probably going to let you dry off faster."

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

* * *

Meanwhile, inside of a room deep within the aquatic base, a single Metal Grunt walks inside. It bows down before announcing, "_M-009, the Metal Crab has been defeated._"

"Really?" asks a voice from a figure hidden in the room's darkness. The voice sounded feminine and robotic, but also somewhat arrogant. "Whoever could've done that?"

"_A few of the other Metal Grunts confirmed that it was Dusk and Shadow that pushed the robot into using its self-destruction protocol._"

The voice suddenly takes on an joyous tone at the report. "Ooo, Dusk is here?!" it excitedly asks, now sounding like a little girl at christmas, "You are dismissed."

The Metal Grunt nods before departing, plunging the room back into complete darkness once the door to the hallway shut.

"I can hardly wait to meet Dusk, she's going to be so much fun to play with!" The voice exclaims to itself before suddenly turning malicious, "And so much fun to torment! Sonic will be so pleased with me when he hears that I broke the mind of the witch that damaged him so badly." It adds, spitting 'witch' out like it was poison, before a brief flash of light comes from its owner's eyes...

...a flash of orange light that illuminated a piece of gently curved metal before all was swallowed up by the shadows again.

**

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**

Ah, yet another mysterious figure. Well, anyways, inspiration for this chapter's layout came from Sonic Adventure's "Emerald Coast" (the sandbars and slate gray rock spires) and Sonic Heroes' "Seaside Hill" level (the rusty-red hills and the "other place" Shadow mentions). This one was supposed to have a bit quicker of a feel than last time, mainly because the two heroes here are Shadow and Dusk, and I will say that the next team should move just as fast (hint hint).


	11. Barren Plateaus

**Ugh...I know this chapter is past due, but I completely forgot about...high-school registration. What was supposed to be an hour-or-so process turned into a three-and-a-half hour long waiting festival because the people running the schools have no idea of what they're doing.**

**(grumbles) Its because of them that this chapter is so late...at least all my other fans got treated the same way so its not like I'm favoring anyone. Lastly, its been 5 chapters since I last said this so: I do not own Sonic or any related characters, they are all property of SEGA/Sonic Team. I only Dusk and all of these robots.**

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Chapter 11 Barren Plateaus

"He should _not_ be taking this long..." Metal Sonic growls, pacing back and forth in front of a computer in his makeshift base. "I remember strictly telling him to check in at twelve-hundred, and its now..." he pauses for a second, calling up his internal clock, "twelve twenty-six."

His grumblings are quickly interrupted when the computer screen changes from a blank to static, then finally a silhouette. Metal Sonic turns and hisses, "Its about time M-002."

"My apologies Sonic, the power matrix was giving us a little trouble and..."

"I don't want excuses, just give me a report!" Metal Sonic yells, slamming his fist on a (thankfully) button-less area of the console.

The silhouette bows, "The fortress is nearly complete. Eggman's former metalworking plant is providing us with all of the material we need. M-003 is a great help, thanks to him, we are actually ahead of schedule on re-developing your weapon."

Metal Sonic's rage vanishes in an instant. "Wonderful, any idea when I can come and apply the finishing touch?"

"The fortress is ready for your presence, assuming you don't mind a few construction barriers, but I'm afraid that..." The silhouette stops.

"Afraid what?" Metal sneers.

"I've gotten a report from M-006 and M-009...two pairs of Sonic's allies are getting close to our bases that are preparing some of the components needed."

"Is our transport system operational?"

"Running at optimal efficiency."

"Then move the components, get them to the security of our fortress. But leave M-006 and M-009 in charge of the bases...they should be able to handle a few obsolete heroes."

The silhouette bows, "The second our transmission ends...I've also got one last thing to report..."

"What?"

"It seems your copy is getting dangerously close to a site where we've tracked down an Emerald's energy signature."

"Anyone nearby of suitable strength?"

"M-005 is in the vicinity."

"Alert her, tell her to keep an eye out for Sonic, but above all else make sure I get that emerald!"

"At once Master Sonic." The transmission ends there.

"Finally, I can leave this garbage dump of a lab and rule from a fortress like I should." Metal Sonic mutters to himself, then leaves, ready to head to his new base.

* * *

Near the middle of the continent is a wasteland, covered in arcing sands and scorched rocks. Towering above all of this are both tremendous plateaus and giant rock spires that claw up at the sky, all a burnt brown color.

Only a few wispy thin plants are able to grow here and other than the whistling of the wind, its silent. Then a soft, rapid 'squish' sound is heard. Slowly the squishes get louder and faster as a hum joins in, then suddenly the wind whips itself into a mad frenzy as a blue and pink blur shoot by towards a plateau before quickly ascending the large rock.

Both blurs stop at the peak of it and their creators stare out over the open sands. "Ohh..." Amy moans, "its so hot here...at least the breeze is kinda cool up here."

Sonic smiles over at his girlfriend. "Nobody said that adventuring is easy Ames. Sometimes you just have to put up with the weather," he says, "At least its only hot, and there isn't any sort of nasty wind or storm."

Amy only shrugs before glancing out over the vast expanse in front of her. "Hot or not, you can't get a view like this in Station Square."

"True." Sonic replies, closing his eyes while letting a breeze blow through his quills, causing them to gently sway up and down. After about ten seconds he reopens his eyes and glances back at Amy. "Enough of a break, ready to keep looking?"

Amy gives her boyfriend a bit of a smile, "Course I am." She replies before beginning to trot away from the edge and across the plateau. Sonic begins to follow her, mimicking her speed exactly.

Slowly the two speed up, first to a running pace, then to their extreme-running pace or (for Amy, since she has on a pair of Ex-Gear skates as well as her streamlined new outfit) a rapid skate. By the time they reach the other edge of the plateau, both hedgehogs are leaving a colored blur behind them.

With a single jump, their speed carries them over to the next plateau, and when that one runs out of room, they leap to the next. This continues for five more plateaus, before they come across a new kind of obstacle...a giant field of rock-spires. This normally wouldn't have been a problem for the speedy blue hedgehog, since he could easily hop between the spires to make it across, but there wasn't a way for less-agile Amy to make it...on her own that is.

"Ames? You might want to get ready." Sonic says as they approach the spires.

"For wh-" before Amy could finish, Sonic grabbed her waist and pulled her into his arms...then leaps off the cliff-edge.

The second the two begin free-falling, Sonic tucks Amy as close to his chest as he can, then begins spinning in place, storing energy in his fur and causing it to start glowing.

Despite her being spun around so many times that she couldn't tell which way is up, Amy is able to feel some kind of heat emanating from Sonic's body as he stored energy. As best as her eyes could tell, Sonic's cobalt fur is starting to glow turquoise...strange since she didn't know of any move that does that.

After a second and a half, Sonic's done charging and quickly (and quite literally) explodes forward, aiming right for one of the spires, leaving a deafening sonic-boom in his wake. The nanosecond his feet touch the rock, he pings off towards another, reaching that one faster than you can blink.

In a blur that makes his standard speed look like a joke, Sonic ricochets his way though the spire field, bouncing off rock after rock, crossing the near mile wide field in about six-tenths of a second, only because he frequently back-tracked to get in a better position to move forward.

He reaches the next plateau and skids about ten feet before stopping, grinning down at the disoriented Amy in his arms. "Have fun riding the Lightspeed Dash express?" he jokingly asks.

"Yea...I wouldn't mind going again...but I think we left my stomach on the other side of that field." Amy groans before clutching her gut, "Did we really go that fast?"

"I'm not entirely sure, I just call it that because of the insane speed. You want me to carry ya until you're feeling better?"

"Yes please."

Sonic holds back his chuckles before running off again, this time at his normal speed. The plateau quickly runs out and there is another within easy jumping distance, but the crowd of twelve or so Metal Grunts on the other side drove Sonic into taking another path, the lower one.

With a well-timed jump, Sonic manages to plunge down the canyon between the plateaus. The rapid clicking of his shoes echoes down the canyon as Sonic and Amy speed down the wall and straighten out on the floor. The Metal Grunts, being the evil machines they are, quickly give chase, curling up into their ball form and rolling after the hedgehog couple.

From her vantage point in Sonic's arms, Amy could see the crowd of blue spheres giving chase and steadily gaining. She quickly conjures up a hammer and throws it at the spheres, only to see it bounce off the curved surface without so much as scratching the paint. She tries a few more times, only to come up with the same result.

"Ames! Look up!" Sonic exclaims, getting Amy to turn around. Just ahead is a natural rock bridge, large enough to plug up the canyon or squish the robots.

"Toss me." Amy instructs. Sonic nods before tossing Amy up at the canyon wall. Like her sis had shown her, Amy angles her Ex-Gear to push her along the wall's surface instead of away from it and begins skating alongside her boyfriend.

In an instant, she's got a hammer in each hand. The next, the two hammers have been tossed clean through the ends of the bridge, knocking the massive rock loose and into the canyon.

Both hedgehogs are able to speed under it, but the robots either get smashed or crash. Knowing that there should be an emerald here if Metal Sonic's goons are present, Sonic and Amy hurry away down the canyon, hoping to find the emerald here before Metal can.

They follow the winding canyon for a mile or so before it opens up to a wide basin, surrounded on all sides by a giant wall of rock. The only other ways out are either up and over the walls, or through another canyon way over on the other side. The only problem is a small crowd of large robots gathered around the center of the basin.

Each one resembled a large beetle, with a bulky, oblong body, small head, and a horn coming off the top. They stood on six large legs, the outermost third of each shaped a large triangle, the point of which is resting on the ground. With such a large robot balanced on six tiny points, it would seem like they are unstable...but the thick segments holding the feet to the body look more than strong enough to support the behemoth.

Before the two could turn around and slip back into the canyon they came from, a sudden screech followed by a thud comes from behind. Before either Sonic or Amy could turn, both got slammed by a powerful tackle, courtesy of a beetle that snuck up from behind. The two are lucky enough for the horn to miss, but getting rammed by a several ton metal robot still hurts, and neither hedgehog can hold back the yell of pain as they get knocked towards the rest.

The rest of the beetle squad's attention was drawn by the yells, and all four began charging towards the hedgehog duo. Luckily though, and rather surprisingly, Amy is able to recover with enough time to grab Sonic's hand with one of hers, then form a hammer in her other. With a mighty (and astoundingly well-timed) the hammer comes down and smashes off part of the lead beetle's horn, flipping the hedgehogs up and over the rest in one fluid motion.

Both land on their feet and spin around to see two beetles start arcing around to the left, two more follow the same path to the right, and the one that ambushed them charges straight on. Sonic smirks at their tactic. "Think this'll stop us?"

"Not even close." Amy replies, increasing the size of her hammer just a little bit while dropping into a fighting stance.

Just as the head-on charger comes within ten feet of the pair, Sonic begins spinning in place while Amy draws back her hammer. In one swing, Amy slams Sonic hard enough to send him clear through the beetle...but now she's surrounded by four other robots and Sonic's out of range to assist, so what does she do?

Simple, Amy swings the hammer back down into the ground and catapults herself upward, leaving the lumbering robots to their own head-on collision.

The pink hedgehog touches down just as Sonic manages to reach her side. Amy quickly strikes a pose and playfully winks at her boyfriend, "Worried about me?"

"A little bit. Where'd you learn to do stuff like that? Or that kind of reaction time?"

"Dusk...I dragged her along to the beach a few months ago and forced her to learn how to swim, so she retaliated by dragging me off to the forest and teaching me how to fight better." Amy explains, "Glad to know it came handy."

Before Sonic could respond, the sickening sound of metal grinding against metal is heard, and Amy turns around in time to see the four beetles pull themselves apart. There are holes punched in their armor and long gashes down their sides, all damage from the horns, yet the four robots still seemed more than ready to fight. The horns are the most frightening thing though...nothing was damaged, not even the paint.

Each beetle screeches before charging, the dump rumbling of their stomps echoing off the walls of the basin. "Amy, you might want to back away..." Sonic warns before curling up and spinning in place.

Judging by the serious tone of his voice, the warning wasn't a joke. Amy quickly gives Sonic some room as his fur begins to glow turquoise. A second later, Sonic vanishes with a deafening boom, shooting right towards the beetles in a Lightspeed Attack.

Amy watches in awe as a cobalt-blue laser rams into one of the beetles, then ricochets to nail another in the side. He bounces up into the air before curving around to crash down on top of a third. This continues for at least thirty seconds; Sonic goes flying in, strikes a robot, then ricochets off and goes after another, moving way too fast for the bots to keep up.

Once those thirty seconds are up, all four beetles are collapsed on the basin floor, now nothing more than four piles of broken parts. The laser arcs around to land beside Amy and fades away to leave behind Sonic, down on one knee and clutching his side with a hand.

"Sonic!" Amy yells in worry, quickly kneeling down to try and help, "Are you..."

"I'm fine Ames. Lightspeed Attack always does a little recoil damage, its nothing bad." Sonic replies.

"You sure?"

"I've done it several times before and I'm still alive aren't I? I just get dinged a little, honest."

Amy sighs in relief, but still helps Sonic back to his feet. Just then, they hear several beetle screeches, but turn to the ruined ones and find that they're still broken. Of course, that's because _they_ weren't the ones the screeched.

Sonic and Amy turn to the walls of the basin and see an entire mob of the beetles scurrying in from both sides. Now being drastically outnumbered, the two hedgehogs quickly speed towards the exit canyon as fast as possible. The beetles are quite nimble for their size, and manage to enter the canyon just five seconds after Sonic and Amy...however, the confined space means that they have to go through in single file.

Sonic glances back to see the beetles giving chase, somehow keeping pace with him and Amy despite being a tight fit in the passage. _Damn those things, why does Metal Sonic have to make his robots so durable?_ He thinks to himself before getting distracted by, "Sonic! Above us!" from Amy.

The blue hedgehog looks up to see four or five beetles flying above the top of the canyon. The back armor is open and a pair of wings are spread out, each with some weird device embedded inside that was probably keeping the heavy machines afloat. Luckily, none of the beetles had any sort of firearms so the hedgehog pair is relatively safe...at least until the canyon ends and the two come out in the open again.

"Great, we'll be cornered the second this ravine ends..." Sonic mutters, his mind furiously trying to find someway out of this.

The two stay silent until luck finally begins to shine on them, after rounding a curve, Amy spots a small cave of on their left that gets passed. "Sonic! Back here!" she exclaims, turning around and darting inside the cave, her boyfriend half-a-second behind her.

There's not much to this cave, just a small opening that goes back about seven feet, but at least it is a hiding spot. Soon the cave is filled with the rumble of stampeding beetle-robots outside, each one completely oblivious to the hole hiding the hedgehogs.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Amy asks, her voice a faint whisper, "It'll take hours for the whole crowd to pass.

"I don't know Ames, there's no room at all for me to try a Lightspeed Dash or any other kind of move that could get us out of here." Sonic replies, his voice just as quiet, "Unless there's another way out, we're stuck...lets just hope those things don't find us."

Amy releases a tiny squeak and steps back, not noticing how close she already is to the cave wall. Her head and butt bump against the rocks, but she doesn't feel anything against her back. Curious, Amy turns around and slides her hand against the rocky surface, gasping as it suddenly falls into an opening cloaked in shadow.

"Sonikku! I found a tunnel!" She excitedly whispers while tracing the size of it with her finger, "Its big enough to fit through!"

"Sweet! Lets get out of here!"

Amy quickly nods before climbing into the crawlspace and starting down it, Sonic following once there is enough room. It wasn't a pleasant journey by any means, there are plenty of rocks sticking out of the walls, each poking at the hedgehogs and scratching at their sides as they passed...but if the other choice was to get trampled by a swarm of robotic beetles, this was tolerable.

After several minutes of crawling, Amy says, "I think I can see sunlight!"

"Awesome!" Sonic cheers, unaware that she stopped. A second later, he (literally) head-butts her, causing Amy to shriek.

"Sonic!"

"Sorry! I didn't know you stopped!" Sonic defends, his cheeks turning a red that almost glowed...mainly because Amy's skirt was up when it happened.

"I-its alright..." Amy replies, shaking off the shock before continuing, Sonic following once he heard Amy shuffling along.

Finally, after roughly fifteen more feet, Amy's head pokes up out of the tunnel's other end, and she finds herself at the top of a mesa with not a robot in sight. After wiggling the rest of herself out, Sonic follows suit, pleased that the two of them are safe.

"Sweet, we lost 'em. Ready to keep..." Sonic trails off while suddenly flinching, quickly shooting his hand into his quills to remove the green Chaos Emerald, finding that the jewel was emitting a pulse of light and an occasional energy spark.

"What's going on with the Chaos Emerald?" Amy asks, watching the emerald's tantrum.

"It only acts this way whenever there's-OW!" one of the energy sparks zaps Sonic's wrist, getting him to drop it. "Another emerald nearby." he finishes before cautiously reclaiming the gem.

"Then lets start looking!" Amy exclaims, waiting only for Sonic's nod before going to check in a few scraggly but thick bushes.

They check high and low, under rocks and in plants, even breaking apart the large boulders that were everywhere, thinking the emerald could be inside it...no luck. Finally, Amy spies something of interest after breaking apart a boulder, "Sonic! I think I see a few robots over on the far side of the next mesa!"

"Maybe they've got what we're looking for, come on!" Sonic says, speeding off towards the neighboring land-mass, Amy just a step behind.

The pulses from the green emerald get faster and brighter the closer they get to the crowd, a sign that Sonic's guess is right; those robots did have an emerald. Deciding to ambush them for a change, Sonic quickly Spin Dashes into the crowd, knocking two of the six Metal Grunts away.

After skidding to a stop he sees the source of all this trouble, the purple Chaos Emerald, and makes a dash for it only to get socked away by one of the four he missed.

"You'll pay for that!" Amy yells, lunging at the robot and smashing it with her hammer. She couldn't grab the emerald though; two others came running at her, keeping the pink hedgehog busy while the fourth slipped in and grabbed the emerald.

The robot started for the tube, only to get slammed away by a kick from Sonic. He grabs up the emerald before hurrying to help Amy with her foes, but gets rammed by another robot that Spin Dashes into him.

The Chaos Emerald clatters to the ground while Sonic is tossed into a large rock, forming a bit of a crater upon impact. After shaking it off, he sees the Metal Grunt running for the jewel, only to get slammed from above by Amy. Using her attack to extend her jump, Amy's able to gracefully land beside the emerald and snatches it up.

She looks up with just enough time to leap out of the way of a metallic Spin Dash, only to get slammed by a second one. With a yell of pain, Amy's tossed back by Sonic while the robot uncurls and grabs up the Chaos Emerald.

With a spin of its upper-torso, the robot tosses the jewel to one of its buddies over by the tube just before its head gets smashed by downward kick from the blue blur. Immediately after breaking that robot, Sonic speeds towards the one by the tube, slamming its face with a punch the second _after_ the Chaos Emerald is placed inside and the lid closed.

"Sonic! Behind you!" Amy yells, alerting Sonic to the approaching Metal Grunt. He spins around with just barely enough time to duck under a punch, then counter with a sweep kick. It gets knocked over, but before Sonic could follow up, the robot from before grabs him.

"Let go!" Sonic yells struggling against the robot's grip.

A high-pitched battle-cry is heard before the "tipped-over" robot gets batted aside by Amy's hammer. The metal hunk slams against the tube while Amy charges straight for the one holding her boyfriend, releasing him by smashing its head.

"You okay?" she asks as Sonic gets released.

"Yea, thank-" he's interrupted by an explosion, and they both turn to see a rocket flying off towards the distant horizon with the Metal Grunt that Amy knocked aside glaring triumphantly at them.

It gets smashed flat as a pancake before Sonic could blink.

"Great, we lost the Chaos Emerald," Amy mutters while letting her hammer disappear.

"Maybe not," Sonic says, pointing up in the sky, "That rocket's leaving behind a trail. We'll just follow it and take it back."

"Don't you think they would've aimed the rocket for one of Metal Sonic's bases, we may be heroes, but I doubt the two of us can handle a base full of angry robots." Amy points out.

"You did knock that robot into the mortar and I heard it groan. If anything you destroyed their aim and the rocket is going to crash down into the middle of nowhere." Sonic says, then flashes her a thumbs-up. "Nice job by the way."

Amy blushes a little from the compliment, "Thanks, now lets go! We don't want Metal Sonic to beat us there!" With that, Amy starts running off, following the trail the rocket's exhaust left behind. Sonic only smirks before chasing after her.

* * *

Several dozen miles away, a slightly different robot is tapping its foot against the ground, irritated that the rocket that was supposed to arrive by know is nowhere in sight.

It growls. "Where the hell is my emerald?!" It almost whines, like a spoiled child. "I got word that those stupid grunts found it and it should've been here five minutes ago!"

"_U-uh, M-005?_" A Metal Grunt nervously asks, "_One of our scouting teams has reported that...the rocket's trajectory was altered moments before launch._"

"What?!" M-005 asks, whipping around to glare down at the robot, despite the height difference only being half-a-foot. "How?!"

"_S-Sonic and Amy interfered. Just before launch, one of the robots was knocked into the mortar and pushed it off course...the rocket's new trajectory has taken it about one-hundred miles north of here._"

M-005 growls, "How dare those two...I'll deal with them personally." With that, M-005 speeds off to the north, aiming to beat her two opponents to the Chaos Emerald...

...and leaving the Metal Grunt thankful for not being crushed.

**

* * *

**

Okay, well...to be honest the inspiration for this level didn't come from a level so much as a cutscene from Sonic Heroes, the first one you see when playing Team Sonic's line. The beetles are also partially inspired by a boss from Sonic Rush; I have no idea what its called, but its the large scarab thing in Mirage Road. The beetles are pretty much that, just with a level body and big horn coming out of their forehead.

**Wow...lots of these 'M' characters huh? Their identity will be revealed in two chapters time. Till then, you'll just have to guess!**


	12. Mystic Swamp

**Geez how long has it been? Four months? Five? Longer? I'm finally working on this again, so (to any fans that are still hanging around) please enjoy! I re-wrote the entire chapter two or three times before I finally got it...sorta good. Its a little shorter than I'd like and not quite as fast-paced as the previous ones, but considering who appears...its kinda tough to make it action-y in the first place.**

**Enjoy! Hopefully it won't take another half-year to update again.**

* * *

Chapter 12 Mystic Swamp

Electricity crackles and sparks fly in Tails' workshop as the kit welds shut the hole in Omega's chest. Cosmo watches him work from the safety of the elevator, asking "Is he fixed?" when Tails ceases his work.

The fox lifts up his mask and glances back at Cosmo, "As far as I can tell. Now I just have to manually restart him."

Tails hops down from the table that Omega is perched on, then he jogs over to a computer and puts in a few commands.

A second passes before Omega's eyes flicker, then glow red. Slowly his arms and legs move around as he tests his joints, then he sits upright and observes where he was. "Error, do not recognize location," he says.

"You're in my workshop Omega," Tails replies, getting the robot to turn and look down at him. "You got damaged pretty badly when fighting Metal Sonic, so I fixed you up here."

Omega watches the kit for a second, then climbs off the table and wrenches out the cable connecting him to Tails' computer. "Explain what happened since my shut-down."

Fox and plant take a few minutes to explain what was going on, and afterwards Omega quickly states, "My current directive is to destroy all remnants of Eggman. Metal Sonic is a member of that category, and by extension everything that he constructs. If you are going to aid your friends, I will follow."

"Then I guess we're off. Can you hang onto the wings of the X-Hurricane?" Tails asks, already heading over to the large jet.

"Magnetic feet are operational and ready for use."

"I'm coming too!" Cosmo chirps, hurrying after him.

"You sure Cosmo? Its going to be pretty dangerous..."

"I don't care. We're going to need everyone if we want to stop Metal Sonic," Cosmo replies, "Besides, I can take care of myself."

Looking into her blue eyes, Tails can plainly see that he wasn't going to get her to change her mind...but he did make a mental note to try and reduce the time she's spending around Dusk and Amy. "Fine, hop in."

Cosmo smiles before getting into the seat behind Tails. Omega leaps up and lands on the back of the jet with a thud, sticking to the vehicle immediately with magnetism. The X-Hurricane slowly taxis out of the hangar and onto the runway jutting out from the cliff. The doors behind slide shut, then the jet roars before taking off into the sky.

Once they reach a cruising altitude, Tails switches on the scanners; everything from radar to sonar to thermal vision hops onto the computer screens in front of Cosmo.

"Anything?" The fox asks.

"Nothing but birds..." she replies. "I doubt he has some kind of flying fortress though...wouldn't GUN have detected something like that?"

"I dunno...Eggman was clever enough to use radar jammers, and I'm sure Metal Sonic might too," Tails replies, "Then again, we could probably see something that big before the radar does."

The trio fly around for a few minutes, without so much as a blip on any of the instruments. Then Omega's head suddenly swivels off towards the right. "Error. Error. Internal compass has been compromised. Reboot protocol unsuccessful."

Tails looks from the robot down to the compass in front of him. Sure enough, its pointing off to the right when just a few seconds ago it was aiming the same direction as their flight path.

"My compass has gone haywire too...well, we might as well go see what's causing it," Tails grunts, banking the plane and flying towards this new magnetic source.

Cosmo glances down below them, cringing at the sight. The beautiful forest around Tails' home is no more; now they're cruising above gnarled, foggy swampland. A chill rushes down the girl's spine as the very sight of this place seemed to say, "Turn around and leave."

"T-Tails? Where are we?" She asks, huddling down into her seat.

"The Mystic Swamp. This place used to be a lush jungle, but it, along with every other place nearby, flooded when Perfect Chaos was created. When Sonic stopped him, the flood-waters receded and every place returned to its natural state...except here. The water couldn't drain back out completely, so the jungle became a swamp," Tails replies.

"The most recent surveys of the area say that it has adapted well to its new conditions," Omega adds, "Few mammals remain, but the reptilian, amphibian, and insect life flourishes. It is difficult to explore as less than ten percent of the land in this area remains above water."

Before anybody else could comment, the X-Hurricane suddenly begins jerking around on its own while alarms go off and the displays either go berserk or shut off completely. Tails growls while trying to keep control of the plane, "Omega! Any idea what's-"

Tails can't finish. As he glances back, he can see Omega spinning around wildly, flapping his arms and spouting gibberish. His performance gets cut short when a particularly violent jerk of the plane sends the robot plummeting to the ground.

_'Shit,'_ Tails thinks, "Hold on Cosmo! This is going to be a rough landing!"

Truer words have never been spoken. Seconds later the belly of the jet begins scraping against the roof of the swamp, then tilts downward and plows through the branches before grinding against the ground and finally coming to rest in a shallow bog.

"Oww..." Cosmo groans, holding her head. She winces at some pain her legs and a soreness in her elbow, but still unbuckles and leans over the seat. The seat-belt kept the fox in place, but he still seems a little out of it.

Tails shakes away some pain in his head before sheepishly smiling up at her. "Any landing you can walk away from," he says. The fox tries to get a response from the computers, but nothing wants to work. The only thing still working is the emergency GPS beacon; a mechanism that emits a signal to locate the plane, so that it can be recovered in just such an occasion.

"Guess we're walking," Tails sighs, prying open the cockpit, then climbing out. "And I just waxed her too!" he complains, looking at his precious jet lying in the muck-choked water.

"We can come back later to get her out," Cosmo says, hopping down beside him. "At least the two of us are okay...but Omega..."

"He's a resilient robot, no doubt about that," Tails replies. "Months go by between sightings, so he can handle himself...unless he's still malfunctioning."

The two begin walking away from the crash site, first out of the water onto a mud bank then following it deeper into the swamp. "What happened anyway?" Cosmo asks.

"Some interference obviously...probably magnetic since the compass was the first one to go nuts."

"Don't magnets mess with computers too?" Cosmo asks.

Tails nods, "I'm guessing that's what made Omega and the X-Hurricane go haywire...but no natural magnetic field could possibly be strong enough."

"But why make a fake magnetic field?" Cosmo questions, pushing a vine out of the way so they can pass.

"Well, as we saw, it could be an aerial defense. It can also interfere with satellite surveys, and probably some scanning equipment," Tails replies, "If anything though, its a dead giveaway that somebody has something nearby that they want to keep secret."

"Like a base?"

Tails nods, then scoops Cosmo into his arms and takes flight. The two swiftly go around the trees and vines in their way, but can't help but feel unnerved at the eerie shapes the shadows assumed. The occasional rustle of some critter in the trees or the distant splash as something dove underwater just made things even worse...it felt as if something was following them, but kept just out of sight.

Several minutes pass in peace however, and they come to rest on another mud bank; scaring off a few lizards as they land. This one is much larger than the one they left behind, but also has three paths that split away and go in drastically different directions.

"Any idea Tails? You've been here before, right?" Cosmo asks.

"Well yea, but the flood changed the whole layout of this place. Your guess is as good as mine," Tails replies.

The two stand in thought for a few seconds before Cosmo suddenly asks, "One through three?"

"One," Tails replies, not even missing a beat.

Cosmo starts off down the middle path at Tails' answer, prompting the fox into following. "How we decide on any ambiguous choice huh?" Tails asks.

"Just about!" she replies, sharing a laugh with the kit. Its right back to the eerie silence afterwards, which persists for an unknown amount of time. In this place, with the foliage looking alike and diluted sunlight wherever it makes it through the thick canopy overhead, time seems to fade away.

Every now and then, the two need to fly to a nearby mud-bank to continue on; they don't dare go in the water out of fear of what could be lurking there. Luckily the swamp maintains its eerie but passive nature and nothing bothers either of them...apart from the occasional lizard, there's no animal life anywhere...they don't even _hear_ any animals.

Suddenly Tails freezes in his tracks, the fur on the back of his neck standing on end. None of his senses registered anything new, but somehow he knew that something changed.

"Tails?" Cosmo asks, noticing his odd behavior. "Something wrong?"

The kit quietly "shh's" her before creeping up to a nearby, overgrown bush. Just as he's about to peek behind the bush, the plant violently tears itself in half; startling both and causing them to scream while tumbling over.

"What?" Omega asks, stepping out of the sludge and onto their mud bank. "I thought you'd be relieved to see me."

"We are, deeply so, its just..." Tails trails off, patting his heart to try and calm it.

"Don't scare us like that, please!" Cosmo finishes, picking herself up and swatting away the mud clinging to her.

Once the two calm themselves,they ask how Omega's doing, earning the following reply, "Systems were malfunctioning due to a sudden magnetic charge. System restart was triggered to correct problem, and now I'm running at max potential." Translated, he's fine.

"That's more than I could say for the X-Hurricane," Tails responds, "She crashed a ways...umm...that way I think," the kit pauses to point off in some direction. "Ever since we've just been wandering aimlessly."

"Internal compass suggests that magnetic source is in this direction," Omega says, turning slightly and continuing on down the mud bank, his two allies just a few steps behind. It isn't long at all before they find something.

The trio stands at the base of what looks like a ruined tower. The paint has faded away on the metal ruins, but the Eggman Emblem can still be seen in a few places. "Hey I remember this place...this was Eggman's base when he tried using Chaos," Tails says. "And its definitely seen better days."

"Attempting to confirm structure," Omega states, his eyes dimming slightly while accessing his memory, "Error. According to official records, base is inoperable; but magnetic anomaly originates within," he says, almost sounding frustrated.

"Guess we found were Metal Sonic was," Tails remarks as Omega pries open the doors.

"Was?" Cosmo questions.

"We didn't run into a single enemy at all in the swamp, there aren't even some guards standing watch," The fox explains, following the robot into the building. "Metal Sonic, if he ever was here in the first place, has left."

The three exit a small hallway and arrive in the first of the ruined rooms. Rubble is scattered all around, and any equipment present is beyond repair. The fact that the room seems pitched to one side suggests that it _was_ at the top of the tower, but is now at ground level after the collapse.

Tails and Cosmo can't see anything of interest, but Omega does after switching his vision to X-Ray. Immediately something curious pops into his view, and after removing some of the rubble his companions can see it too...a crushed robot, split into countless parts and far beyond recognition.

"Curious, there is containment-grade glass in this area of the room," Omega says.

"So that robot was in some container?" Cosmo asks.

"Negative. Ratio between robotic remains and glass shards too imbalanced. Initial calculation suggests two containers."

"With two robots?" Tails asks.

"More than likely."

"Then where's the other one?"

"No visible remains. Container could have been empty." Omega replies, "No information pertaining to current objective. Continuing."

The robot begins stomping off, leaving Tails and Cosmo to glance at the remains one last time before following him. The trio passes through several more rooms, but can't find any trace that Metal Sonic was ever here...but all the while Tails has been oddly quiet.

Finally Tails speaks up after the fifth room. "Omega? The last time Metal Sonic caused trouble, he was in a form we called Neo Metal Sonic."

"Correct."

"When we beat him, he changed back into Metal Sonic before powering down."

"Correct."

"Didn't you and Shadow turn him over to GUN?"

"Correct. He was permanently dismantled shortly afterwards."

That comment perks up Cosmo's interest. "But, if he was taken apart then how is he causing trouble now?"

"Or for that matter, back in his Neo Metal Sonic form?" Tails adds.

"I do not know." Omega replies. "But I doubt GUN would reassemble something as dangerous as Metal Sonic."

"No argument there but...and this is just an idea, what if there was more than one Metal Sonic?"

"You know Metal Sonic's arrogance. I doubt he would've created a back-up." Omega replies.

"I agree with you there, but I faintly remember Sonic mentioning something when he was here those years ago. It was out of the corner of his eye, but he claims to have seen some blue robot."

"And you think this was another Metal Sonic?"

"Maybe. I don't know to be honest, but its possible Eggman had a spare-" Before Tails could finish, a shriek rings out as the floor gives way underneath Cosmo.

The fox and robot spin around and rush to the hole, but before either could try and help; they witness something amazing. Cosmo's body glows a bright green before a root in the wall of the room below suddenly wrenches free on its own. The root reaches out and catches the girl, before gently setting her on the ground; whereupon she stands for a second before collapsing.

"Cosmo!" Tails exclaims, hopping into the hole and using his tails to gently land beside the girl. Omega follows, firing his jets at full force to cushion his landing.

The girl groans slightly as Tails lifts her into his arms, resting a hand to her head. "M-my head...feels like its in a vice..." she groans.

"You are concerned about the female, but you should look at this." Omega says, getting the fox kit to look up. Occupying the room around them are conveyor belts and robotic arms, but all in relatively new condition; a stark departure from the corroded room housing this equipment.

"So he was here after all." Tails says, "So he was using this as an assembly plant?"

Omega doesn't reply at first, stomping over and observing some of the equipment. "Incorrect assumption. The tools on these arms suggestion deconstruction." Omega replies, then moves to another section, "But these suggest construction..."

"Why take things apart only to put them back together?" Tails asks, "...unless...he's _upgrading_ something."

"No parts remain. Metal Sonic finished whatever he was doing here and left." Omega remarks after exploring some more.

Tails stands up with Cosmo in his arms and walks towards the robot. "So we know Metal Sonic was here and he was using this place to upgrade...something. That's not much when you think about."

Omega nods before looking around. Something seems to catch his interest, off near the corner, and he toggles his vision to low-light mode. He watches the corner for a second, then fires off a missile.

The explosion creates a dull thud that echoes in the metallic room, but after the smoke clears, a very _very_ new hallway is visible; complete with lights. "Perhaps this will lead to Metal Sonic," Omega says, heading towards the new route with companions in tow.

**

* * *

**

So, as Tails and Omega explained, this is the jungle area that players can roam in the world map of the first Sonic Adventure game; only distorted because of the flood that Perfect Chaos caused. The base the three discovered is the large tower thing that Eggman hides out in before he launches the Egg-Carrier, and (when you poke around in the first room of that place in Sonic Adventure) there really are two tanks that each hold a robot; one holding Metal Sonic and one holding...a robot that I've completely blanked on.

**Is that Metal Sonic the same one that is causing trouble now? And where does that hallway lead? What about the bizarre behavior of the root? All to be answered in future updates of this story, but for now; its time to hop back to some of the other teams and see how they're doing...once I update again. Until then!**


	13. Babylon Garden

**I sincerely apologize for taking so long. This is actually not my original idea for Chapter 13, but after a month of fighting with the first idea I said "Forget this, I'll just switch it with another." And of course, once I do start off on a roll; my laptop decides to give me trouble! First the backlight in the screen goes out, so I can't see anything. Then when the new light comes in and I get it installed, that works but now the screen is screwed up; so I can see, but can't navigate. A whole new screen is in the mail, but no telling when it'll come in.**

**In the meantime, I'm stuck having to use a bulky external monitor. . Again, I apologize for the long wait, but it isn't easy writing a chapter when the keyboard is in front of you, but you need to turn your head about thirty-degrees to the side to see what you're typing. Honestly, I feel as though this chapter could've been better, but I can always come back and revamp it should the urge hit.**

**As for now, enjoy this long, LONG overdue update.**

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Chapter 13 Babylon Garden

"I _hate_ this place," Sonic groans, looking up at the colossal floating ruins known as Babylon Garden.

Despite being the size of a city, the titanic structure floats serenely above its desert home without so much as a wobble. Its beauty has long-since been worn away by time, leaving a harsh stony exterior that almost dares anybody to set foot on its surface. Suspended in the air around the central structure are long curving roads that connect the separated areas of the city like antique freeways; which is theorized to have once been the home of the first Extreme Gear users.

But Sonic's dismay at the destination is understandable, since all of his past encounters with the ruins seem to involve the world's imminent destruction. First some psychotic genie guardian attempted to break free, then a robot fused with the power source of the ruins and almost created a black hole. To any sane person, Babylon Garden is bad news and should be avoided at all costs...but the steam trail leading onto the ruins, left behind from the wayward rocket, means a Chaos Emerald is up there and he and Amy have to get a hold of it before Metal Sonic could.

"It does seem to have some kind of curse on it," Amy agrees, "But it seems harmless now...but lets not spend more time than we have to."

Sonic quietly nods before taking Amy's hand in one of his own, using the other to remove his Chaos Emerald. The hedgehog squeezes the green jewel, then proclaims, "Chaos Control!"

A bright, warm light envelopes him and Amy, teleporting them up onto the ruins; landing on one of the ancient highways. Shortly after they land, Sonic drops the jewel, groans, and rests a hand to his head. "Shadow has definitely got me beat when it comes to that...ahh, my head..."

"You need to rest?" Amy asks, worrying about Sonic over-exerting himself. He's done a Lightspeed Dash, Lightspeed Attack, and Chaos Control all within the same hour, he's bound to be running low on power even if he is Sonic.

"No, no, the sooner we get off this place, the better. Besides, the security is off and Metal Sonic was expecting the rocket to follow its normal course, so we shouldn't have to deal with anyone," Sonic replies, shaking away the fatigue and reclaiming his jewel.

Amy looks back into the sky and follows the rocket's trail with her eyes, noticing that (from their vantage point at least) it looks as if it crashed into a plaza or garden at the base of a large structure nearby...only problem is that this road leads to the far side of the ruins, and behind them is...well, nothing. That section has long since crumbled away.

Sonic makes a gesture for her to follow before starting off down the road and the pink hedgehog quietly follows. The two quickly speed up to a pretty good pace...doing their best to ignore the patch of fur on their neck that is standing on end.

The two speedsters follow the antique road all the way around the ruins, then into the complex at what appears to have been a market. Large windows exist in the side of those buildings that haven't fallen over, and with the wide, incredibly worn street, it doesn't take much imagination to see merchants showing off their wares to a bustling crowd.

But the merchandise Sonic and Amy are interested in isn't to be found here, so on they go; leaping over the remains of a fallen statue soon after entering. The two zip around one corner, ignore another, then take a third.

They round a few more, but find themselves back at the ruined statue...clearly traversing this place wouldn't be easy; not only are the roads like a maze but all the buildings look alike! And from the screeching wind up above, they'll get blown away if they try the rooftops.

"Well, that was a nice minute wasted," Sonic grumbles, "Guess the only way we'll get through is by luck."

Amy purses her lips, her mind quickly trying to come up with some kind of answer to this problem. "We could leave some kind of mark at the intersections, showing which way we went...that'll at least help with the accidental back-tracking," she suggests.

"But we're still relying on trial-and-error," Sonic replies, "And with this place's reputation, one of those 'errors' will set off some kind of guard robot."

Amy nods in understanding, then notices that Sonic seems to be taking much heavier breaths...sure he was running pretty hard, but he's done longer and faster without breaking a sweat!

"Sonic? Are you sure you're okay?" Amy asks, now starting to seriously worry.

"I told you, I'm fine. Now lets get the Chaos Emerald and get out of here," Sonic replies, then mockingly laughs, "Easier said than done."

He lowers his head in thought, and about thirty seconds later an idea comes to him. "Improvised directions!" he exclaims out of the blue, earning a confused look from his girlfriend.

"What?"

Sonic laughs as his cheeks get a faint red tint. "This may surprise you Amy, but I'm actually terrible at remembering which way the compass directions are," he admits, "More often then not, I don't know which way is north."

Amy's jaw goes slack. Sonic's always been zipping around the world all his life, but the whole time he's been doing it without a sense of direction? Just darting around, not even knowing which way home and friends are?

"Yea, I know. But I don't get lost because I substitute directions in my head. Then, when I need to turn, I remember which way my goal is so I don't lose track of it. So let's see..." he closes his eyes and thinks hard. "The rocket was to the right of us when we landed...then we went, say one-eighty around...so it should be..." Sonic pauses and re-orients himself, "That way," he declares pointing in the same direction as the market's main street.

"Now we just do our best to go in that direction!" Amy cheers, then leads a happy Sonic down a side-road since a building is in the way.

The cobalt hedgehog takes the lead soon enough, using every opportunity to travel in the direction the emerald is. Sure, its an ancient city, and more often than not a building gets in the way and forces the hedgehogs to deviate, but at least they're finally making progress...until a turn channels them down a road blocked by a fallen building.

The two skid to a stop before they imbed themselves in the stone wall, but just barely. They breathe a sigh of relief before turning around, planning to back-track to the last intersection and try a different route...then hear a loud screech, one that sounded mechanical.

They glance up at the air just in time to see a red blur diving at them, and the two leap to the side to avoid getting flattened by it. Once the dust settles, a mechanical falcon is standing in the crater and it was _big_. The bird is almost as tall as Amy is!

The robot has a red back, wings, and tail, but a creamy-white underbelly. Its feet has sharp shiny talons and its beak is just a sharp and nasty looking. The robot eyes Sonic with dark-yellow electronic eyes, screeches loudly and lunges at him; holding its beak out like a lance.

Sonic rolls off to the side, letting the robotic avian crash into a stone pillar. The blue hedgehog is quickly joined by a hammer-wielding pink one, both watching the dust cloud intently for any signs of the bird.

"I thought the security was off!" Amy exclaims, her hands tightening their grip on the hammer.

"And I thought the security drones were silver, not red," Sonic adds.

As the dust settles, they get an explanation. On the robot's back is a large white arrow starting from the base of the tail feathers and going up to point at the crown of its head. On both sides is another, slightly smaller arrow; branching off from the main one, curving across the back of its wings, and pointing at the wing-tips. This is yet another robot in Metal Sonic's army.

"Yeesh, those stupid round things, then the beetles, and now a falcon-" Sonic would've continued but Amy interrupts with a shriek of, "Oh my!" as the falcon turns around and charges again.

Sonic quickly launches himself forward in a Spin Dash, barely missing the falcon's sharp beak and colliding with its stomach. The falcon gets hurled backwards and into another stone wall, but as Sonic uncurls they hear it shriek before flying back out...but unlike before it flies away into the sky, disappearing into the bright sun.

"Retreating...that's not like them," Sonic remarks.

"Worse than that, I didn't see a scratch on it at all," Amy adds, "I don't even know if you did any damage when you tackled it!"

"Well, lets get out of here before it comes back," Sonic says, earning a nod from Amy before they both hurry back in the direction they came from. Before long the two are zipping down another route, hoping that they find the plaza soon. If Metal Sonic has birds flying around, they really need to hurry before those avians get the emerald.

_'Oh we really need to hurry. I don't want that iron freak to get that emerald first...wait a second...'_ Sonic's thoughts trail off as he slows to a stop.

"Sonic?" Amy asks, stopping as well and looking at him. "What's wrong?"

"Those Metal Falcons are flying robots...they could've easily landed at the rocket, recovered the emerald, and left before we even got close to it. So why are they still hanging out around here?" Sonic ponders.

Before Amy could respond, or even think about what Sonic pointed out, a loud chorus of screeches comes from the direction they came from. Upon turning, they see a flock of at least a dozen Metal Falcons flying down the road after them; and both hedgehogs quickly run in the opposite direction.

The blue and pink blurs go rushing around corners, doing their best to lose the pursuing avians...but the constant screeching from behind is evidence that they aren't succeeding. Luckily the falcons don't seem to have any sort of ranged weapon, but after how resilient the first was, neither hedgehog really wants to try fighting an entire flock.

All the while, Sonic is doing his best to keep their path oriented towards the waiting emerald, and even though he's sure that they took a few wrong turns along the way something else is bothering him. Wrong turns aside, he and Amy are bound to be going in the general direction of the emerald, which is obviously something that Metal Sonic wouldn't want...so why aren't these birds chasing them in the other direction?

In fact, it almost seemed as if the Metal Falcons are herding them _towards_ the emerald. At some turns, a few of the birds would speed up; as if saying "go this way and I'll catch you!" but at others the falcons didn't seem to care if the hedgehogs used it or not.

A few minutes of this strange chase elapse, and the scenery changes around them. The buildings seem to be bigger and somewhat more elaborately designed; with decorative arches over the doors and designed into the windows, large balconies overlooking the suddenly wide street...one even seemed to have the remnants of a covered patio and decorative, if withered, flowerbeds!

One thing is noticeably gone though; the maze-like twists and turns of the previous area. The roads are straight, and there are fewer and fewer turns. Eventually a single colossal structure starts to loom in front of them; and the sheer intricacy and size suggests that it was a palace of some kind, probably for the rulers of Babylon Garden when it was still inhabited.

Whether they want it to be or not, that palace is their destination and as simple as it would be to lose the falcons in there, both Sonic and Amy can't shake a sense of unease that seems to be radiating from that place.

The doors in the surrounding wall are already open, and not open as in 'rotted away,' open as if someone is expecting the two hedgehogs. Both Sonic and Amy leap up the stairs at the base of the door, sailing right through the opening and land in the gardens, rolling a few feet before stopping in a pile.

"Ow..." Amy moans, picking herself up and looking around. All of the plants have long since withered away, leaving empty pots and dry dusty patches in a network of stone pathways; all of which sits in a large depress, walled on all sides by stairs, and just past that is either a covered walkway or the front of the palace.

But it isn't the architecture the hedgehogs are interested in; resting in the center of the gardens are the crushed remains of the rocket, and a faint purple glow can be seen through the cracks.

"We found it!" Amy exclaims, and she starts for the rocket, only to get stopped when Sonic grabs her shoulder.

"Notice something?" Sonic asks, gesturing behind him.

The pink hedgehog turns around to see all of the falcons standing in the doorway, their sharp yellow eyes watching the heroes intently. They weren't making any attempt to enter the area, but seemed determined to keep the two from leaving.

"I have a feeling we've left the proverbial frying pan and entered the fire," Sonic says.

His suspicion is confirmed when something crashes into the opposite side of the gardens. The two whip around to see an awfully large dust cloud obscuring their view of the palace; then an object explode out of the cloud and smash through the metal remains...and keep going.

They manage to leap out of the way of whatever it was; letting it embed itself in the stairs behind. Thinking it to be a good idea to grab the emerald before things get worse, Amy hurries toward the emerald...only for Sonic to catch and pull her away when a second object comes out of the dust cloud and crashes down right where the pink hedgehog was a second ago.

"Touch the emerald, and I'll crush you," hisses the object, standing up and getting Sonic to gawk and Amy to gasp.

Standing between them and the emerald is...Amy...or at least, a robotic duplicate of her. The robot stands just as tell as Amy, has the same body shape, and is even painted the same shade of pink. It has 'quills' drooping down from its head, emerald green electronic eyes, and even three 'hairs' sticking out from its forehead. Heck, it even has golden bracelets on!

Its feet are designed to resemble the boots Amy wears, but instead of wearing either of Amy's outfits, the robot has on what appears to be a simple halter top and shorts. Clutched in one of its hands is a hammer, resembling Amy's but with the colors reversed...and a quick glance to the side reveals that the first object is a duplicate of that hammer.

"Who...what the heck are you?" Amy exclaims, forming a hammer of her own.

"My serial number is M-005, but I prefer being called Mecha-Amy," the robot replies. Even its voice somewhat resembled the pink hedgehog...it had that electronic tone to it of course, but it still sounded like the real Amy Rose.

Amy growls at her duplicate. "Metal Sonic has the nerve to copy me?" she exclaims, her hammer responding to her rise in anger by growing larger.

"Don't over-sell yourself. Metal Sonic has created an improvement out of all of you," Mecha-Amy responds.

Sonic and Amy grimace at the news. If Metal Sonic could mass-produce durable robots like those falcons and the beetles from earlier, who knows how powerful he made specially-crafted robots like this one? Or what about the copy of Knuckles? Or even Shadow?

"So what's the special occasion? Metal got lonely?" Sonic asks.

"Hardly," Mecha-Amy scoffs, "He has much more important things to attend to than chasing down the emeralds. That's where we come in."

"Oh I get it, you're his errand-girl!" Amy taunts, getting the robot to growl. Clearly, not to mention creepily, Metal Sonic gave the robot Amy's temper.

"Better than being a clingy, whiny, brat," Mecha-Amy retorts, now getting her flesh counterpart to snarl.

In prefect unison, both Amy's lunge forward; swinging their hammers against one another, the impact making a boom that rivals that of a thunderclap. Neither pink combatant flinches from the collision; they actually begin fighting each other, taking turns swinging their hammer and dodging.

Sonic waits for the two to move away from the rocket, then darts for the emerald. The blue hedgehog reaches for the jewel, but gets thrown away when Mecha-Amy's hammer collides with him.

The pink robot glares at Sonic, hissing, "I said, don't touch my emerald!"

"How dare you hurt Sonic!" Amy yells, swinging her hammer at the apparently defenseless doppelganger.

With surprising grace, Mecha-Amy leaps high into the air, back-flips twice, and lands near her first hammer. The robot wrenches it free, then throws it at the real Amy who was making a beeline for the emerald in the wreckage.

Amy has to stop and use her own hammer to deflect the incoming one. By that time, Mecha-Amy has darted past the dizzy Sonic, snatched up her second hammer, and is in mid-swing; forcing Amy into a defensive block.

"I'm the only one who'll be getting that emerald!" Mecha-Amy declares, giving a rough shove and forcing Amy into skidding backwards a few feet.

"S-Sonic!" Amy calls, watching the robot pick up the other hammer, then brandish both at her.

"Don't waste your breath! He doesn't have any energy left!" Mecha-Amy proclaims, lunging forward and attempting to squish her live counterpart between the two hammers. Luckily, Amy manages to hop backward and avoid getting crushed.

Sonic shakes off the blow he received, takes aim, and curls up into a spinning ball. He quickly launches forward, hoping to hit the feminine robot from behind...but just as he's about to hit her, she swings one of the hammers around to intercept, _without even looking._

The blue bullet ricochets away, crash landing into a bench and left in a groaning mess. The robot had a fair point, ever since that Chaos Control, he hasn't been feeling that great. His whole head felt as though it was in a fog bank.

While Sonic struggles to get up, Amy is forced into defense by her metallic twin. Sure, Metal Sonic put plenty of effort into it, but the way it effortlessly brought a hammer around to block an attack, or smoothly leapt out of danger and right into a counterattack...it was unreal.

Mecha-Amy laughs while blocking an attack from the real Amy. "You can't win! You'll run out of steam sooner or later!" it mocks while bringing the hammers around again, missing Amy by an even narrower gap than last time.

Out of desperation, Amy leaps into the air and tosses several hammers down at the robot. Most get blocked, but one crashes into the ground nearby; startling the machine into dropping its guard and letting the last hammer hit home.

While Mecha-Amy reels from the blow, Sonic takes the opening and pulls off a successful Spin Dash; slamming into the robot from behind and throwing it into a stone column. The two flesh hedgehogs re-group, but Sonic quickly goes down on a knee.

Before Amy could get a word out, Sonic says, "Don't worry about me, I can still fight."

"No, you're exhausted," Amy replies, putting a hand on his shoulder, "I'll take care of her, you just get that emerald."

"Are you nuts Amy? That robot is way stronger than what else we've dealt with and-"

"I know," She answers, cutting him off. "But you can barely stand. Don't worry about me, I'm a lot stronger than you might realize."

Amy takes a deep breath, somehow causing the hammer in her hands to double in size. With a yell she rushes off toward the robot, brandishing the gigantic hammer and swinging it like it weighed nothing...and for a brief second, Sonic could've sworn that she was glowing.

He gets snapped out of his trance when something vibrates in his quills, and after removing the object he finds it to be the video-phone gizmo that Rouge provided. Sonic pushes the button to answer it and finds a very distraught Shadow looking back. "Shadow?" he asks in surprise, "What the hell happened to you? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"_Look, its really hard to explain. Is Amy there?"_ Shadow replies.

Sonic winces when he hears his girlfriend shriek another battle-cry, swinging the mighty hammer and turning a flowerpot into little more than dust, but missing the robot-version of her.

"She's a little preoccupied." Sonic replies.

"_Fighting herself?"_

"H-How did you...oh, you and Dusk run into one of Metal Sonic's friends?"

"_Dusk did..."_ Shadow trails off in a sigh, _"That's actually the problem, Dusk's in urgent care."_

"What?" Sonic exclaims, "What in the world did she mess with? Wh-where are you?"

"_It'll be easier to explain in person. Sunset Beach General Hospital, that's where we are."_ With that, Shadow hangs up, leaving an army of questions in Sonic's head.

One thing is for certain though, he and Amy need to hurry up and finish things here.

Summing up all the strength he has, Sonic hurries for the rocket; taking notice of a Metal Falcon that left its flock and is soaring towards the jewel as well. The metallic avian extends its talons, aiming to snatch the purple gem before the hedgehog could, but Sonic puts on an extra burst of speed at the last second; grabbing the Chaos Emerald a split-second before the falcon could.

The blue hedgehog quickly squeezes the jewel to get a power boost, but still has to contend with the angry falcon behind him. _'I'm going to regret this in a few hours...'_ he thinks, but begins to charge up for a Lightspeed Attack anyway.

The sound of an explosion resonates from his attack, while Sonic arcs around and slamming the bird into the ground; grinding it into the stone before bouncing away and aiming for Mecha-Amy and actually managing to score a hit on the robot.

The metal hedge-gal growls at her two opponents, her sensors detecting an extreme power surge in Sonic. This is definitely a hitch in her plans, but nothing she couldn't handle. "Enough playing, time to kill you both!" The robot declares, then brings her two hammers together.

Amy and Sonic watch in surprise when the hammers start to open up and expand; reconfiguring themselves into something...which becomes apparent when Mecha-Amy pushes them together into a single large hammer.

The robot brandishes her new toy before lunging at the live hedgehogs. Her downward swing misses, but it does leave a deep crater behind. Mecha-Amy leaps away as real-Amy and Sonic charge in to counter, but gets knocked out of the sky when Amy tosses her hammer.

"Something wrong?" Amy asks, "You seem to be lagging."

Her response is an electronic growl.

"Amy, care for a little golf?" Sonic asks, quickly curling up and spinning in place. Amy smirks before bringing her hammer back and swinging it into Sonic; sending a blue missile towards her robotic twin.

Unfortunately the robot seems to have gotten past its lag, as it easily swings its own hammer around to send Sonic back towards the real Amy. In response, Amy sends Sonic back only for him to come back at her a second later. Once again, Sonic gets knocked in the other direction; but the cycle is finally broken when he explodes towards Mecha-Amy in another Lightspeed Attack.

Mecha-Amy did bring her hammer around to try and knock him back, but Sonic hit with so much force that he bent the weapon like it was made of putty. He even kept going and plowed into the robot's chin, making a horrible grinding noise ring out.

Blue hedgehog ricochets away from his opponent, skidding to a stop, and thinking they'd finally won. He punches the air in victory, but is rewarded with a Metal Falcon to the chest. The first bird knocks free his green emerald, which is snatched in the talons of a second bird; who flies away into the sky with the rest of its flock.

Amy and Sonic gape in disappointment, but turn when they hear metallic laughter. Mecha-Amy is clearly on her last legs, evidenced by her head now at a crooked angle and one eye flickering on and off. "One emerald down, one to go!" it yells, stubbornly insisting on its attack.

Amy brings her hammer around and knocks Mecha-Amy's head clean off. The head lands in the grass and quickly powers off while the body drops the hammer and falls to its knees, then limply topples over.

"That's for impersonating me," Amy snorts, glaring at the remains before making her hammer disappear.

Sonic walks over to give her a congrats and the news about Dusk, but stops when she lifts up a leg to scratch at her shin. "You okay?"

"Not really...my shin got all tingly all of a sudden," Amy replies, quickly putting her foot back down when she starts to lose her balance. She looks at Mecha-Amy's body for a second before kneeling down and reaching into the neck.

Sonic grimaces at the somewhat disturbing sight, even more so when Amy's face lights up. "So that's why she was so good," Amy says, stopping while pulling her arm out; bringing the red Sol Emerald into the light. "She had an emerald powering her."

"That explains how she could react so fast," Sonic remarks, remembering how flawlessly Metal Sonic reacted back in Central City. "But we've got more important things! Dusk's in the hospital!"

"What?" Amy shrieks, "Why?"

"Shadow said it'd be easier if we talked in person. They're at Sunset Beach General."

"Well don't just stand there, get us off this floating rock!" Amy exclaims.

A quick Chaos Control later and both hedgehogs are back on the desert floor...and Amy is soon off like a bullet; leaving a large dust cloud as well as Sonic in her wake.

_'I'm hoping Shadow can use Chaos Heal with just two emeralds,'_ The blue hedgehog thinks while rushing after the pink one. _'But I wonder what happened? Dusk is far from being a pushover, so what could possibly have overwhelmed her so much that she wound up in the hospital?'_

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**Well? Was it worth the wait? I sure hope so, I still feel awful for making my fans wait for so long. Oh, and as if it wasn't obivous, but this location was inspired by the Babylon Garden tracks on the original Sonic Riders.**

**And thus raises a new mystery! What happened to Dusk? How did Shadow make it out intact? What kind of robot will the next duo encounter? Find out next-time (and hope it doesn't take another three months.)!**

**Oh! Real fast, before you leave a review! Please, please try to write more than one sentence. I can understand if you're busy, but getting a review that says "Nice chapter, looking forward to the next!" doesn't exactly help me in anyway. Can you say what was nice? What could've used some work? At the very least, please don't leave a single word review (no joke, I once got a review that only said "Cool"). And, as always, don't flame! Thanks!**


	14. Inferno Foundry

**EDIT (5/14/2011): Thanks to "The Brawler" for pointing out something near the end of this chapter that made Dusk sound stronger than she actually is. I've fixed it up so it now longer gives that image, but still carries the same general idea as the original.**

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Chapter 14 Inferno Foundry

Silver and Blaze stood in awe at where their road led to...a gigantic factory, covering several square acres and having at least half-a-dozen smokestacks clawing up at the sky. The gargantuan building is steel gray, and several Eggman Emblems are visible on its sides.

"How did we not find this place? Its huge!" Silver exclaims.

"I don't remember any of his bases even close to where we are. We probably never found this because we never came here," Blaze replies. "What I find weird is the lack of defenses..."

"Well, that makes breaking in so much easier! Come on!" the hedgehog exclaims, running up to and leaping over the fence. Blaze is only two steps behind.

The two hide behind some of the shipping containers and survey the area. A few Metal Grunts are wandering around; most armed with either the sword or the bazooka they encountered earlier. Oddly enough, they can't find any entrance.

Blaze nudges Silver with her elbow and motions at the top of the crates. He nods and the two climb up, hoping a higher vantage point will help them find a way in. They certainly can see more of the grounds from their new perch, but an entrance still eludes them.

"What the hell?" Silver asks. "How are we supposed to get in? The smokestacks?"

"We'll suffocate long before getting down those things...there's got to be some kind of entrance..." Blaze replies, peering at every inch of this fortress, looking for a door, a window, a vent...anything that can get them in.

Nothing, its as if this place was welded into one giant piece.

"Guess its time to take a page out of Knuckles' book," Silver says, removing the Chaos Emerald from his quills. After activating the jewel, he manages to levitate the three crates they're standing on, then hurls them into the wall, one at a time.

Sure he finally makes a doorway for them, but the noise also attracts about half-a-dozen Metal Grunts...which get tossed away like leaves on the wind.

"Impatient?" Blaze rhetorically asks, following him into the hole.

"Irritated is more-" Silver immediately goes quiet when he steps inside. The air inside this fortress is hot, stale, and thick; so overwhelming that he starts coughing and holds his chest.

Blaze succumbs to the same problem, but at least notices why the air is so different. This place isn't a base at all; its a giant metal-working plant. Titanic vats of molten metal stand vigil all around, occasionally getting moved by a giant automatic crane. A handful of catwalks criss-cross the foundry up in the air, and small robotic pickups can be seen driving around occasionally; metal slabs or raw ore in their cargo beds.

"Ugh...now we know where Eggman gets all that metal..." Blaze gasps, struggling to find enough oxygen in the thick smoggy air, "I can hardly...hardly breathe."

Silver manages to fire off a telekinetic pulse beneath them, shoving both mobians up onto the catwalks. Its just as hot up there, if not more so, but the air isn't as smothering and both can get their breath back. "Lets figure out how to shut down this place fast," Blaze says, already taking off down the catwalk, "The sooner we get out of this place, the better!"

"No argument there!" Silver replies, hurrying after her.

The two rush back and forth along the maze of catwalks, struggling to find anything that looks like a control room...but can't find anything other than the metal-working equipment. This entire facility made little sense; there had to be _something_ controlling all of these machines...some kind of central area where the computers are, but the two can't find any hint that such a place ever existed here...

...but all the while have a tiny feeling in the back of their minds. The feeling that some_thing_ is watching them very closely.

After a few minutes, the two stop their searching; they're tired, hot, and pretty damn sure they've been running in circles the whole time. "What the crap?" Silver asks in frustration, the heat and air finally getting to him. He takes out the Chaos Emerald and stares into it.

"What are you doing?"

"Debating about whether or not I should just level this factory or not," Silver grunts.

"Easy," Blaze says, resting a hand on his shoulder, "I'd rather not see what a tsunami of molten steel looks like."

"Got any better suggestions?"

"The steel has to be going somewhere right? If we destroy Metal Sonic's robot plant, this place will be useless," The feline replies, "So just follow-" her voice stops in an instant while her head snaps off to one side; gold eyes peering down their catwalk.

Without a word, Blaze suddenly rockets away down the path, leaving a bewildered Silver to follow as fast as he can. Hedgehog pursues cat for a good minute or two, then freaks when she leaves his sight...but luckily he spots a purple tail disappearing behind a vat. Silver follows after her, soon getting the cat into view once again.

He tries calling out to her but gets nothing in response. _'What in the world's gotten into her?'_ he thinks.

* * *

_'I know for sure that I heard footsteps running away from us...but now they're gone...'_ Blaze thinks and slows to a stop, panting from having to run in the almost un-breathable air. "Sorry Silver. I heard footsteps but lost them."

No response.

"Silver?" she asks, turning around but finding herself alone. "Oh great, now we're separated," she groans, then starts calling for her friend while retracing her steps.

Within seconds, however, she hears a loud thud. Thanks to the stark metal, the sound echoes around and soon seems as if it came from everywhere, but her acute hearing told her which way it came from before it became impossible to tell.

Braving the thick air for answers, Blaze leaps down from the catwalk and hurries in the direction of the noise...but she can only make it past a single vat before the crane starts placing another down in front of her.

The cat skids to a stop, spins ninety-degrees, and rockets off again...only to see some of the trucks park themselves in her path and form a wall. Blaze manages to leap up and over the vehicles, which prompts them into revving up and giving chase.

_'What the hell? Before it seemed like the factory was on automatic, now it seems like its trying to crush me!'_ Blaze thinks, using her flames to once again toss herself up to the catwalks; thinking she'd be safe to continue her search up there.

She was never more wrong in her life.

The terrible sound of shearing, twisting metal can be heard from behind and she looks to see the crane has picked up another vat and was using it to smash up the catwalk! The several ton piece of metal is flying right at her, kicking up scraps of metal as the catwalk starts collapsing.

She barely has time to curse before running away from the destruction. Oddly enough, whenever she tries rounding a corner to get away, the crane follows after her. That proves that someone is controlling this place at least, but Blaze still has more important matters to deal with...like not getting turned into a furry lavender pancake.

Unfortunately, after about a minute of this chase; she can see _another_ crane with a second vat coming towards her. Caught between the two and with no forks in the road she could use to escape, Blaze has to think of a way out and fast!

_'I could jump down...but then I'll get caught in a shower of twisted metal...Oh I hope this idea works...'_

Blaze speeds up just enough to put a little distance between her and the crane from behind, then stops, aims herself off to the side, and engulfs herself in fire. In a single instant, she forces all of the fire into a single spot beneath her feet; then lets it explode.

With a yell that was half terror, half-excitement, Blaze is hurled off the catwalk and sent flying through the air; just before the two vats collide and grind together into a twisted mess. The cat smirks at her escape and even laughs a little. As odd as it was to say, there was a small part of her that always loved slipping out of traps and escaping by the fur on her neck.

The explosion propels her far, far away from the demented machinery; and she gracefully lands at the base of an empty vat. Blaze heaves a heavy sigh before the sound of footsteps catches her ear again. Immediately she sets off after them, thinking that maybe it was Silver...

...but she immediately becomes confused when the footsteps disappear into a dead-end. Blocking every other direction are the liquid metal vats, and the only way out is past Blaze...so where did whatever made that noise disappear to?

"You've got a lot of nerve, barging in here like that," hisses a voice, immediately making the princess snap to attention.

"Who's there?" she yells.

"You're in no position to make demands, especially when I've got your friend. Just look up," it replies.

Blaze does so and quickly gasps. Hanging above one of the vats and tied up in chains is Silver, apparently unconscious and above molten metal, evidenced by his face glowing orange. The feline snarls before declaring, "Let him go now!"

"Didn't I just say you're in no position to make demands?" the voice asks while stepping out from the shadows, "Honestly, how are you a princess?"

Blaze's eyes widen as she takes a half-step back. Standing before her is a robotic version of the feline princess. Same lavender color, same sunrise-gold eyes, its even got a hair-style like hers and fuzz on its wrists! The only difference is the robot is wearing red boots and a dark purple jumpsuit unlike the jacket, pants, and heels of the flesh feline.

"Model number M-007," The robot introduces, "But I much prefer the sound of Mecha-Blaze."

"So I take it you're the one who put Silver up there?"

"And if I did?" The robot replies, practically smirking at Blaze.

The princess growls before flinging a hand forward, making flames shoot out at the robot. To her shock, the robot raises its own hand and releases flames as well; which collide with Blaze's and negate one another.

"Surprised?" Mecha-Blaze sneers before rushing forward; her speed rivaling that of the real Blaze. The real princess manages to dodge a metallic fist by a mere inch.

Blaze counters by swinging her knee around into the robot's stomach, and does succeed in recovering some space between them; but also makes her knee start throbbing in pain. _'Should of seen that coming,'_ she thinks, scolding herself for doing something so stupid.

When she sees the robot launch another fire attack, Blaze flips backward to get out of the way and releases her own flamethrower. Mecha-Blaze simply aims her other hand and launches fire from it; blocking Blaze's attack.

The two get engaged in a combat dance; darting back and forth, flipping through the air, and throwing fireballs or launching flamethrowers. After a minute of this, Blaze notices that, for some reason, Mecha-Blaze's fire is still useable...heck, its not even showing signs of dying!

Because it isn't alive, Mecha-Blaze's fire had to be generated through some kind of fuel; and on a robot that's the same size and shape as a mobian, there isn't much room for fuel tanks. So either she's got some super-crazy efficient fuel or she's getting more from somewhere...but its not like she could just hook up to something and refuel in the middle of a fight.

Finally fed up with this ridiculous copy, Blaze lets out a battle-cry before releasing flames that are far more intense than usual; hoping to simply overwhelm Mecha-Blaze's fire.

No such luck, somehow the robot manages to release fires that are just as searing. The two infernos slam together and start flaring off to the sides, prompting both felines into escalating their fires; which in turn only makes the miniature star between them swell up and produce even fiercer flares.

"Okay, give! How are you not out of fuel yet?" Blaze yells, not letting her flames die down in the least.

The robot laughs, "How can I when the very air is my fuel! This place's air is thick with carbon-dioxide, and I can split that into a supply of carbon and oxygen...both of which are flammable!"

_'Oh great. And when it burns those, they get recombined into carbon dioxide. So she's never going to run low!'_ Blaze thinks, _'Meanwhile, I'm only good until my stamina runs out...better save what I've got left...'_

The real feline cuts her fire and dives away to avoid getting burnt, then leaps forward with a fist pulled back. Blaze swings and scores a blow across the robot's face, but like before, she does more harm to herself than Mecha-Blaze. Luckily, Mecha-Blaze seems to lack the speed of the real Blaze, and she manages to escape to safety before the robot could strike back.

Growing annoyed, Mecha-Blaze begins launching small bursts of fire only for each to be avoided. "Hold still!" the robot snarls, "You can't physically hurt me, and you'll run out of fire long before I do, so just die!"

_'I hate to admit it, but she's got a point. She isn't even scratched, but I've got a throbbing hand and knee!'_ Blaze thinks before quickly leaping away from another fireball, _'And all this hopping around is not helping the knee problem!'_

"Don't listen to her Blaze!" yells a voice that gets both felines to look up. Silver is wide awake, if still confined, and glaring down at the two. "Like a cheap metal knock-off can outmatch you! It may have a fancy flamethrower, but that's not even close to what you can do!"

"Quiet down!" Mecha-Blaze snarls, shooting a toxic glare at him.

Silver ignores the robot, but can only manage to add, " You can take whatever she throws out and give it back tenfold!" before he takes a fireball to his crest of quills.

Blaze whips around to see her robot twin readying another fireball. The flaming orb is thrown towards the hedgehog, but he's spared when Blaze leaps up and catches it. As she descends, the feline gives it a good toss back, but the robot easily moves out of the way.

"Fine!" Mecha-Blaze snaps, glaring daggers at the real Blaze, "I'll just incinerate you first!"

The robot thrusts both hands forward, releasing an inferno towards the princess. Silver watches in shock when Blaze doesn't even twitch as the flames engulf her. Things seem to spiral even further out of control when the fire grows to a gigantic size, reaching up to the halfway point of the vats.

After she feels confident that Blaze is nothing but ash, Mecha-Blaze turns off her fire and laughs a bit at her victory. The joy soon becomes shock, however, when the huge fire suddenly puffs up, then begins shrinking at an alarming rate.

Both the robot and Silver look on in awe as the fire opens up to reveal Blaze, perfectly unharmed. Once the fire parts a bit-more, they can see why; several fiery tendrils arc reaching out from the flames and disappearing into her palms. Blaze is actually absorbing that inferno!

Within seconds, nothing is left of the flames but a few embers, and once those get sucked up, the princess clenches her fists and becomes shrouded in a fierce orange glow, coupled with a rippling heat haze.

Mecha-Blaze takes a slight step backward when Blaze's eyes snap open. The glow reflected in them to make the whites of her eyes look orange, and that combines with her golden irises to look as if the sun is glaring out from the princess.

"What's the matter?" Blaze asks, her voice distorted from the sheer heat around her, "Can't you absorb fire too? Or can you only produce it?"

The princess smirks before flexing her arms, causing the glow to instantly ignite; surrounding her in flares that jump back and forth like electrical arcs. She yells a battle-cry before rushing forward, igniting small explosions behind her to accelerate at Sonic-like speeds.

Blaze's fist connects with Mecha-Blaze's jaw, finally inflicting damage by throwing the robot into one of the vats. With a mechanical snarl, Mecha-Blaze goes charging back at the real Blaze, tries to throw a punch, but it gets caught effortlessly by the princess.

The robot tries to swing her knee around, but that too gets caught. Blaze smirks before bringing a leg around; kicking he robot twin in the side and sending it flying to the base of another vat. "Enough playing, time you died!" Blaze yells, thrusting both hands forward and releasing a torrent of white-hot flames.

The second the fires hit their mark, Blaze and Silver can hear electronic shrieks as Mecha-Blaze's circuitry began overheating to the point of failure. After a few seconds, the noises stop to signify she's gone offline, but Blaze doesn't halt her attack until all of the excess fire has been vented.

Once the last bit is gone, and the flames around the robot have vanished; all that's left behind is a partially melted, non-functioning robot.

Blaze pants a little, then sighs. "Ho-ly crap," she wheezes, quickly removing her gloves and shoving them in a pocket of her jacket, then rolls up the legs of her pants, "I thought for sure I'd be the one who melted. Holding in all that fire made me really hot." Her final act of seeking some relief is unzipping the top inch or so of her jacket.

"No argument there," Silver jokes, "But uh, you mind helping me down? Its hard to use telekinesis when you've got heavy metal chains digging into your back."

Blaze leaps up and grabs onto the chain just above Silver, finding that the only thing keeping the chain from unraveling is the loose end tucked underneath the coils. "She could've at least used a padlock," Blaze mumbles, holding onto the chain with one hand and wiggling the 'knot' free with her other.

Once its undone and the two are back on solid ground, Silver gives his girlfriend and good pat on the back, "Nice job back there. How'd you know you could absorb fire?"

"I honestly didn't," Blaze admits, "I just thought, if I can shoot fire from my hands, I should be able to absorb it as well."

Silver eyes the remains of Mecha-Blaze, "Good thing you did too, that..._thing_ plays dirty," he stops to rub at his neck, "When we got separated, I mistakenly followed after it...and then it chopped me on the neck and knocked me out."

"She also scorched that handsome crest of yours," Blaze play-pouts, ruffling up the blackened quills, "How'd you wake up anyway? You looked dead to the world."

Silver shrugs, "Never could sleep well when it was hot."

Before they leave, Silver decides to get a little revenge and slams Mecha-Blaze with a psychic shockwave. Good thing he did, because he knocked off some of the weakened metal and that lets the yellow Sol Emerald tumble out and onto the ground.

"No wonder she could split molecules," Blaze says, retrieving the jewel, "Now its on our side."

"I've got a Chaos Emerald, and you've got a Sol," Silver states as the two of them walk off in search of an exit, "Now we're unstoppable."

Blaze's only reply is a laugh as they head off, once again in search of wherever the metal is going. Even with Mecha-Blaze's shutdown, the foundry is still operating (although for how long is anyone's guess, all the damage the cranes did is sure to take a toll) and that includes the pick-ups.

It isn't long before the two mobians come across one of the trucks with a bed full of fresh metal slabs, and both catch a ride; hitchhiking along until it passes through a large garage door and into a field of large piles of various metals.

"Huh," Silver grunts while they hop out of the truck's bed, "Guess there _was _a door after all," he finishes while they climb up the nearest steel mountain.

"We must be on the other side of the foundry, no wonder we didn't see it," Blaze adds, then feels something vibrating in her pocket.

She removes the object to find it the video communicator Rouge gave them, and upon answering a nervous Shadow appears onscreen. "Shadow?" Blaze asks as Silver leans in to look, "Something up?"

"_Its Dusk...she's in the hospital."_

"What?" Both Blaze and Silver exclaim, staring at Shadow like he has a second head.

"How?" Silver asks, "She's a little klutzy, sure, but she's never screwed up so bad that she wound up in the hospital."

"_Well, that's just it...some weird crap happened and, hell I don't even know,"_ Shadow replies, _"All I know is the Sol Emeralds were involved. You know more about them than I do, so..."_

"I get it, where are you?"

"_Sunset Beach General Hospital."_

"Got it, be there as quick as I can," Blaze replies before Shadow hangs up.

"You want me to come with?" Silver offers.

"No. Whatever factory is turning this metal into robots needs to be shutdown, the sooner the better," Blaze replies, "I know its dangerous for you to go alone, but you're resourceful. You'll think of something."

"You've got a point. Alright, I'll take care of it," Silver replies.

"Here," Blaze says, handing over the Sol Emerald they just won as well as the communicator. She quickly pecks him on the cheek before hopping down and running off; going around the foundry instead of back into it.

"Sure hope I can handle shutting down a whole factory," Silver mumbles to himself, then takes note of the communicator vibrating again. He answers it and smirks at the face on the screen...maybe he didn't have to.

* * *

**The basic ideas of the chapter come from the Evil Foundry level of Sonic and the Secret Rings, and...umm...I could've sworn there was a second level, but I'm blanking on it. Well, anyways, a new detail about Dusk's hosptial trip has been revealed, but what exactly happened? That'll just have to wait until that chapter premieres.**

**This actually brings me to a problem, once this reveal chapter premieres, the story's going straight into an "intermission" or sorts before entering its second part. Now, I've got plans for another chapter on the Rouge and Espio and Knuckles and Shade teams, but after teasing about Dusk I feel kinda bad making you wait another two chapters to find out what happened, but once the second part begins I can't really go back and catch up those teams without disrupting the flow of the whole story.**

**So what should I do? Skip over those two teams and conclude what I've been hinting at, or give everyone their due? Just give me your opinion in your review and I'll decide from there. Regardless of the choice I make, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! **


	15. Abyssal Base

**For any fans that I still have, and to any I may have lost, I am deeply sorry for this long absence. I have no excuse for my laziness, as that is the main thing that kept me from working on this. There is no reason why I should've waited so long to resume work, and I fully understand if you're upset with me. I doubt that this double-upload will make up for the ridiculous waiting you've had to endure.**

**Furthermore, I've skipped over the 'next' chapter for both teams of Rouge and Espio, and Knuckles and Shade. Any idea I came up with became complete and utter garbage when I tried to turn it into words, and instead of fretting over that, I'm just going to continue the story. I may upload their chapters when this story is over, or I may leave it up to your imaginations; at this point in time, I do not know.**

**So again, I am sorry for the long, long overdue update. It wasn't fair of me to keep you waiting while I procrastinated. One more thing; this is the next '5th' chapter, which means its time for the disclaimer. I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any related characters, items, or concepts; they are all property of SEGA. I only own Dusk, this storyline, and a handful of other items too tedious to list.**

* * *

Chapter 15 Abyssal Base

Two dark hedgehogs hurry along the undersea tunnel connecting the base to shore, eager to bring a halt to whatever Metal Sonic has going on down here. But...what in the world could that be? Why would he need an undersea base? A simple back-up? Neither of them knew.

Shadow and Dusk skid to a halt as the tunnel opens up to a three-way intersection, all the paths leading into gloomy semi-darkness...and as they looked into it, trying to pick a direction, a little bit of fur on the back of their necks stood on end...

As if some-_thing_ lurked just beyond their sight, daring them to step across.

Dusk cringes slightly when her emerald, still lodged under her shirt, gives off a small discharge; like even it was nervous. "I am _not_ liking it down here," she states before turning to her boyfriend, "Can't you just blow a hole in the wall and teleport us out of here before we're swept off in the flood?"

Shadow shakes his head. "I could, but this base likely has bulkheads that would close up to keep the whole facility from flooding. It wouldn't do us any good." He then places a hand on her shoulder before walking straight ahead, "Whatever we want is likely in the center."

Dusk, not wanting to be left in the dreary place alone, quickly and quietly follows after him. She's tough, but that's worthless against a building that plays with her mind.

The two explore for a couple minutes, and only fight off a couple Metal-Grunts...but that only serves to unnerve them even more. This is a base for Chaos' sake, why are there so few guards? They manage to stave off the eeriness enough to keep searching for the purpose of this base.

...but when they reach a two-way split in their path, and Shadow takes a few steps ahead of Dusk, things turn sour when a door slams down between them.

"Shadow!" Dusk yells, running up to the door and pounding on it. "Are you alright? Shadow!"

"I'm fine!" Shadow's voice yells back. "You keep going ahead, I'll try and find a way around to you."

"What? Can't you just teleport back over here?"

"I can't, these walls aren't letting Chaos Energy through."

Dusk hesitates before answering, looking down the path and feeling her fur stand on end again. "A-alright, I'll go on by myself. But you'd better meet me soon Shadow, you understand!" she yells before hurrying forward.

On the other side of the door, Shadow is actually frantically yelling, "No, dammit Dusk, I said stand back! I was going to blow through the door!"

"_Forget it Shadow,"_ hisses a sinister, electronic voice through the intercom, _"The door's a reinforced bulkhead, strong enough to not even bend under a Chaos Blast. And its soundproof, so she didn't hear a thing...well, I piped her voice over to you, but mimicked your voice to speak with her."_

"Who the hell are you?" Shadow angrily yells, "If you harm one quill on her head, I'll tear you in half!"

"_Tch, tch, tch,"_ scolds the intercom, _"Your sweet little shadow is getting further and further away. If you want to keep her safe, you'd better hurry."_

That's all the encouragement Shadow needs to shoot down the corridors in a blur...but there's one thing he's confused about. Why did the voice call Dusk a shadow?

* * *

The purple blur rushes along the undersea corridors, looking for both the purpose of this facility and Shadow...but the longer she spent on her own, and without even a Metal-Grunt to break the silence, the more and more her mind started playing tricks on her.

Out of nowhere, a large metal door is suddenly in front of her...and it ominously slides open without so much as a creak. Hoping that whatever she needed to smash in inside, Dusk heads inside...but doesn't make it three feet before the door closes behind her; locking the girl into a pitch black world, the only light being the faint purple glow leaking through the fabric of her top.

"I've finally gotten you Dusk," giggles a voice. Sure, giggling is supposed to be playful, but this isn't a good playful. This, to best put it, is the kind that the possessed doll from horror movies uses...right before it decides to...well, its called a horror movie for a reason.

"Who are you?"

Again, the sinister giggle echoes out, sounding as if its coming from all directions. "I'm just here to explain why you shouldn't exist is all."

"What?" Dusk asks, trying to be brave, but its difficult when her mind is running off without her.

"Ah oblivious as usual. Don't you realize? You have no place in this world." the voice, which sounded more and more feminine as Dusk heard it. "After all...you're just a filthy _shadow._" It hisses out 'shadow' like its an insult.

"Wh-what's that supposed to mean?" Dusk yells, starting to grow angry...even if it was just to hide her fear.

"Don't you understand? Everyone else in this world has or had parents. Sonic has them, Amy, Tails, even Shadow had a demented alien overlord for a dad...except for you. No mother or father to call your own, but you're not a perfect copy of Amy either..." the voice trails off into a laugh, "You're nothing but a pathetic shadow, trying to fit in among the real."

While Dusk growls and clenches her fists, angered at being called pathetic, the voice continues. "Ah yes, little Amy...everything she dislikes about herself, every part of her she wished wasn't, it all is in her shadow...in you. You're nothing but a culmination of everything Amy hates in herself...you're just Amy's vulgar, miserable shadow, brought to life through science."

"Shut up!" Dusk yells, clasping her hand over her ears to try and block out the voice. Its lying, just trying to mess with her, but no matter how many times she told herself that...the words wouldn't leave. Everything it had said jabbed into her mind and tugged at her already upset nerves.

"In all honesty, I'm surprised they keep you around. Not one of them can stand you. I guess they just feel bad for you, so they pretend to be your friend."

"No...that's not true," Dusk whimpers, all of this psychological play starting to break down her confidence. "They're really my friends...all of them care about me."

The owner of the voice watches as Dusk whimpers quietly, smirking that the purple hedgehog's been reduced to such a frail state. Just one more thing to pick at before she's good and ready to fight against. "Oh have I mentioned Shadow yet? He probably hates you the most. After all, you were created similarly to him...you remind him of his time shortly after being created. Of his happy times on the ARK. He hates being reminded of then, so he hates you. Sometime soon he won't be able to keep up the facade anymore, and then..." the voice makes an awful gargling noise, which makes Dusk squeak pitifully, "No more pathetic shadow."

"N-no...its all a lie...Shadow loves me...he'd never do something like that," Dusk says, more to try and boost her confidence instead of contradicting the voice. Somehow she sums the strength to demand, "Show yourself so I can shut you up!"

"I kept the room dark because I thought you'd be more comfortable among your kind. But if you insist..." the voice trails off before the room becomes flooded with light.

Dusk quickly shields her eyes, but they adjust and she sees the owner of the voice...gasping at who is standing in front of her.

Its a robotic version of herself; same height, same shade of purple, there's even a piece of elegantly curving metal hanging over her left eye. The robot's feet seemed to be Extreme Gear skates, designed and painted exactly like hers, and the thing even had silver rings around its wrists. The only differences are that it has deep orange eyes and wears what looks like a dark-blue, form-fitting racing suit.

"M-009 is my name, although I much prefer Metal Dusk," the robot says.

Now that she can see what's been messing with her head this whole time, Dusk pulls her fist back and lunges towards the robot with a battle-shriek.

The machine manages to leap away from the attack, but doesn't try to fight back. Dusk, in any other mood, would've thought that strange, but with her nerves frayed so badly, all she wants is to destroy this copy and get back to Shadow's comforting arms.

She swings her arm forward, making a shadow-tendril lash out of Metal Dusk's shadow...but before it could find its mark, a black metal cable erupts from the robot's palm and ties around Dusk's tendril; keeping it at bay. "There are those vile powers of yours again, plain proof that you're a shadow...a worthless shadow."

Dusk snarls before lunging forward, and missing, again. Now that there's a face she can connect to the problem, all of her unease and doubt is starting to take a backseat to her temper. "You're nothing but a damn hypocrite! You call me pathetic and worthless, yet you were made to be me!" Dusk angrily yells, fists clenched tight.

"But I can accept what I'm supposed to be," Metal Dusk replies, her cable retracting into her palm. "You on the other hand, still want to pretend to be something you're not."

"Shut. UP!" Dusk roars, this time moving fast enough to land a blow to the robot's gut and throwing it several feet away...but she misses something else. She failed to notice that, when she yelled, her purple Sol Emerald flashed _black_ for a brief second.

"They've already got one hot-head, why else would they keep another around except out of pity."

"I said shut up!" Dusk yells. Her next attack once again misses its mark...and another black pulse from the emerald goes unnoticed.

"Why do you bother fighting? Why not just return to the shadows where you belong?" Metal Dusk asks, "Your so-called friend has already fallen, and you're all alone down here...see?" The robot gestures up at the wall, where a large TV monitor is positioned...and is showing an image of Shadow, sprawled out face-down on the ground.

"Sh-Shadow?" Dusk gasps, tears forming in her eyes.

"Funny how a simple electrical surge can bring anyone down, regardless of how powerful they are," Metal Dusk remarks, before taking the opening and ramming into Dusk; throwing the poor girl several feet backward.

The TV screen goes blank while Dusk moans on the ground, a mixture of physical pain and emotional pain that her Shadow is gone. It just couldn't be...but the video was right there and there wasn't anything to hold back the tears and gasps of sadness...at least, not at first.

Dusk weakly gets to her feet, but her head remains down. "You can mess with my head, play your damn mind games all you want," as she spoke, she reaches for her emerald, and her tone slowly get more and more angry. "But if you dare to mess with Shadow, I will kick your ass until you regret ever _thinking_ of it!"

She holds the purple emerald out to her side, and raises her head to show a determined face stained with tears. Metal Dusk simply scoffs. _'Let her use that emerald, I've got my own keeping me running.'_

But neither of them expected what came next. Dusk squeezes the Sol Emerald, but instead of the normal flash of purple light typical of the emerald's activation, a flash of bloody crimson light emerges as its purple sheen becomes a black darker than pitch in a split-second.

Dusk shrieks as she feels what could only be described as electricity shooting up her arm, and immediately tries to let go of the mutated emerald, but her hand wouldn't respond. This painful energy, far from the normal boost that the emeralds are supposed to give, floods through her whole body; overwhelming every last cell and making everywhere burn with pain. Finally, its too much, and she collapses to the floor; the dark emerald landing by her shoulder.

Metal Dusk watches in a mixture of curiosity and caution as Dusk gets back to her feet, the black emerald somehow floating over her left shoulder while emitting crimson pulses of light, but she's different now. She seems to be radiating almost pure hate, her blue eyes open and practically burn holes in the robot opposite her.

Quick as lightning, Dusk is in front of her metal copy and punches it so hard, it flies clear into the wall with a thud; leaving a severe dent in the metal surface. Metal Dusk manages to pry herself free and make a break for it before Dusk could get up close again, but a shadow-wall springs up in front of the robot; cutting off its path. It turns around to see the evil hedgehog standing there, her right surrounded in a violently churning aura of black and blood-red.

Dusk's face twists into an evil sneer as the wall fades away and the aura condenses into a single circle on her palm...but quickly begins to spread, swallowing up her whole hand before beginning to engulf her arm. Glove, bracelet, fur, all become buried in the inky black material as it progresses, before stopping at her shoulder, but several shadowy projections trail out further; thin lines crawling down her back, across her breasts, and up her neck, each one erratically curled like the gnarled roots of a tree.

The final change in her new sleeve of darkness is back at the hand, where each finger suddenly extends into a long, nasty claw. With a malevolent roar, Dusk lunges forward at incredible speed, raking her claws across Metal Dusk's body and tearing slits into the metal.

The robot staggers backward, but manages to retaliate but ejecting two black cables at Dusk; one from each palm. Shockingly, Dusk charges straight into the whips and takes the full force head-on, but doesn't so much as flinch...in fact, she actually grabs hold of the cables with her darkened hand and tears them clear out of the robot; taking off its left hand in the process.

Realizing that Dusk is no longer rational, and starting to doubt if she's sane, Metal Dusk turns and runs; trying to get as far away from the wraith as possible. Dusk immediately gives chase and despite the head-start her robot twin has, the girl has the machine within seconds.

With a yell she stabs her shadow claws into Metal Dusk's back, curls them around the Sol Emerald inside, and tears it free; leaving Metal Dusk's electronic shriek to trail off as she permanently shuts down.

Even though Dusk never purposely activated it, the silver Sol Emerald turns pitch black before releasing a crimson light, just like its once purple brother. The new dark emerald wriggles free from her grasp and floats up to her right shoulder, and the instant its destination is reached; energy begins to arc between the two emeralds and down into Dusk, forcing out cries of agony.

The pain ends after a few seconds, but Dusk doesn't move right away; instead choosing to draw long, ragged breaths. Then, a few of the shadowy roots swell in size and begin to grow again; moving across her chest and back to the other shoulder, where they gather and grow into a duplicate clawed sleeve. As frightening as it is for her to have a second clawed hand, its nowhere near as disturbing as her eyes. They've become bloodshot, but instead of the cracks being red, like normal, they are just as black as her weapons.

Dusk clenches her clawed hands before growling, then she casts one more look of disgust at her robot twin before rushing up to the door, wedging her claws into it, and tearing open a hole big enough for her to squeeze through...no drive left except the desire to destroy.

* * *

Shadow groans before picking himself up off the ground, hissing before resting a hand to his throbbing head. Just his luck to run into a Metal Grunt armed with some kind of dart gun...the thing managed to jump out from behind a corner and nail him in the chest before getting several Chaos Spears through it. Shadow yanked the dart out as quick as he could, which stung, but some of the drug got into him anyway.

Normally the Ultimate Life-Form wouldn't succumb to something as puny as tranquilizer, but that stuff was either meant for something much bigger than him or incredibly concentrated because he went out within moments of removing the dart. Its only thanks to him _being _the Ultimate Life-Form that he woke up after a minute or two, but he had a sneaking suspicion it probably could've subdued him for an hour or more if he left the dart in.

_'No time to waste sleeping, I've got things to do,'_ He thinks before taking off down the hallway, eager to finish his business here as quickly as possible.

He goes around corner after corner, having difficulty finding anything of value at all, until he stumbles upon something that made chills rush down his spine...a destroyed Metal-Grunt. It wasn't the offline robot that spooked him so much, it was the sheer amount of damage inflicted on it.

The best way to describe is if it took a tumble into a paper shredder, then a blender, then finally a garbage disposal...hell, Shadow had a harder time finding a single part that _wasn't_ busted into a thousand pieces. Whatever did this is strong, vicious, and in a very, very, _very_ bad mood...and if this is what it could do to a robot, what could this thing do to Dusk?

More determined than ever to find her, Shadow is about to take off again when he notices something. Leading off into the distance are drops of...some kind of fluid, probably a hydraulic fluid from the massacred machine. Whatever did this left a trail, so maybe he can find it and kill it before it finds Dusk.

Bracing himself for whatever is at the other end of the trail, Shadow sets off, one hand clenched into a fist and the other ready to make a grab for his Chaos Emerald. The drops eventually stop, but since the hallway continues in one direction, Shadow's pretty sure that its still straight ahead...and soon he can hear footsteps up ahead.

Oddly enough, they aren't a stomping or trudging noise, or even clanking to denote a rogue machine...instead it sounded like...clinking? No doubt about it, that was the sound of glass, or a similar ceramic, clinking against the metal floor...and what's more, Shadow even recognized the noise.

"Dusk!" he yells, "Dusk I'm back here!"

The clinking stops, then starts up again, this time getting closer and closer...but now something else is wrong. Dusk isn't running or skating, she's just walking back. Wouldn't she be excited to get back to him? _'Easy Shadow, don't overreact...her skates probably got damaged, that's all.'_

Soon he can see her silhouette in the distance, and eager to see a friendly face again, Shadow calls her name again. Now she's picking up speed, but...is that growling he can hear too?

"Dusk?" Shadow asks, but soon sees her new, twisted form.

She roars before bearing her claws and taking a swing, but thanks to Shadow's reflexes all she does is give his chest fuzz a trim.

"Dusk? What the hell's gotten into you?" He asks.

His response is another yell as she takes another swing, missing again but raking her claws along the metal wall and leaving several gashes in it.

"Come on Dusk, look at me! I'm Shadow!"

Its useless, either she's really mad at him, or can't think straight. Either way she swings again, this time scratching his left arm.

Realizing that he needs to get away from her immediately, Shadow turns and rushes off down the hallway, but a glance over his shoulder reveals that she's giving chase on her own skates. Finally able to get a good look at her, Shadow quickly notices the enraged scowl on her face, the black cracks on her eyes, and the darkened emeralds floating beside her...and the several-inch-long, sharp claws she's been trying to skewer him on.

_'What the hell happened to her? She's got a temper, but not this bad!'_ Shadow thinks, _'And worse, what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to fight back? She wants to kill me, but I can't kill her! Well...maybe I can knock her back to her senses.'_

Using Chaos Control, Shadow teleports behind Dusk, and quickly curls into a ball and Spin Dashes into her back; bowling her over and immediately noticing that her skin is colder than ice. Despite getting run over and shoved into the metal wall, Dusk barely slows down in her pursuit...if anything, all Shadow managed to do is make her angrier!

"Come on Dusk! Snap out of it!" Shadow yells, taking a risk and ducking under a swipe to swing his foot into her stomach. She flinches, but immediately grabs his leg and tosses him down the hall, forcing him to run off again. _'This isn't her. She likes the direct approach, but never risks taking a hit just to get one in on her opponent, that's never been her style. And how is she recovering so fast? I had to have knocked the wind out of her!'_

Distracted by his thoughts, Shadow doesn't notice how close the ghoul that was once Dusk had gotten...but he quickly learns when her claws rake down his back.

"Son of a!" he yells, speeding up to get some distance before whipping around and firing several Chaos Spears. If he was hoping for them to drive her back, he's incredibly disappointed; Dusk uses her arms as shield while continuing forward at full speed, plowing right through the barrage.

Shadow swears loudly before taking off again. "I can't let her get out. What if she loses interest in me and goes after a town?" Shadow asks himself, "But dammit, I can't use my powers to their full extent in here thanks to the damn Chaos shielding."

He glances back at the deranged girl, watching her grit her teeth and snarl loudly.

"No choice, I gotta subdue her. Thank the stars she's tough enough to take a beating...I just hope she's not so tough that I can't win."

Changing course at the next split in the path, Shadow starts heading for the base's exit. Its risky letting her out, but he needs to have more room to fight in and to use his powers to their fullest again. Within a minute the two are racing back out of the base, along the undersea tunnel before up a few ramps and out onto the beach...under an ominously overcast sky.

Now, with no obstructions to block him, Shadow quickly unleashes a Chaos Punishment; pummeling Dusk with countless blows before ceasing...and finding himself leaping away from another swipe. Her resolve is incredible, even after taking another Spin Dash, she still gets up and charges again.

The two quickly become entwined in a rough battle; Shadow doing everything in his power to not get hit or hurt Dusk too badly, and Dusk doing her best to hurt Shadow while simply barging through whatever attack he tries.

Finally, one of them gets the upper hand...and its not the one with a grip on sanity. Shadow does his best to dodge, but Dusk manages to put a little burst of speed and grab him. She quickly slams him into the sandy beach, pinning him to the ground with her left hand; two claws on either side of his neck.

Shadow winces from the impact and looks up to see glaring down at him, her free hand pulled back and claws ready to imbed into him. For a brief second, his mind flashes far far back into the past...before she realized the truth...all the way back to their battle on the deck of the Egg-Battleship, during that storm. Back to when they were reversed, and it was him that had pinned her down; his Chaos Spears dangling over her head.

Ever since things changed, ever since she started hanging out with him and they became close...he had started and never stopped regretting that act. He knew he wasn't thinking clearly then, but in his mind, that was no excuse for wanting to take her life. Now, almost as if fate _wanted_ to be cruel, he gets to relive it from the other perspective; watching as Dusk, her thoughts not in order, readied to take his life away...

...and it didn't matter that it is his girlfriend...that its Dusk looming over him. He'll be damned before giving history a chance to repeat and end differently!

Scrunching his eyes shut and looking away, Shadow's red highlights glow brightly before he explodes; throwing Dusk away from him and into the sand a good ten feet away, not counting the six foot skid mark she left behind.

_'Dammit, if that didn't knock her back to reality, nothing will,' _Shadow growls, getting up to his feet. Dusk mimics him after a few seconds, but her darkened arms are still there. On the plus side, he finally managed to stun her, as she seems more wobbly on her legs and doesn't move right away.

At first, Shadow feels like doing something he never does...giving up. Then he finds one more glimmer of hope upon noticing the Sol Emeralds. They've been there this whole time, and its not like they weren't easy to see, but he had been so preoccupied with Dusk that he never gave the jewels a good thought. This entire battle, he's been going after the wrong piece!

With her still woozy, Shadow takes the opening that may never come again, and charges towards Dusk at his full speed; then leaps up and over her head, grabbing hold of the the corrupted emeralds and (despite being surprised to feel resistance) yanking them away from Dusk before skidding a good ten feet.

For a second, the two jewels zap Shadow with very painful energy bolts before suddenly flashing back to their normal purple and gray hues; serenely glittering as if nothing happened. But just as Shadow turns around to check on Dusk's condition, he hears her begin shrieking loudly.

Upon looking, he can see her down her knees, clutching her head and occasionally suffering a violent twitch. Her shadowed hands slowly dissolve into black motes that hang in the air around her before simply fading out of existence. As the shadows melt away, so does her screams before, finally, she collapses face-first into the sand; silent and still as a board.

"Dusk!" Shadow yells, stowing the emeralds in his quills while hurrying over to her. He quickly scoops the unconscious girl into his arms, and while drawing a little relief from her breathing (even if it was labored) notices that she's still ice cold.

Shifting her onto one arm, Shadow plucks his Chaos Emerald with his free hand, using it to warp them right to the grounds of the hospital in nearby Sunset Beach...and is inside and bellowing for help within seconds.

A pair of nurses rush out and move Dusk onto a stretcher, quickly asking what's wrong. "I don't know, but run every test you possibly can on her!" is their frantic reply. After seeing her whisked away into the facility, Shadow finally manages to breathe again and quickly collapses into one of the chairs in the waiting room.

His ears twitch at the sound of thunder outside, but he pays it no real mind...his thoughts running wild while trying to figure out what went wrong.

"Sir?" asks a shy voice, getting Shadow to look up at a raccoon nurse. She smiles before offering him a glass of orange juice and a few chocolate chip cookies. "We normally give these only to blood donors, but you look like you could use them."

"Thanks," he mumbles, accepting the snack but then places them on the table next to him.

She gives Shadow a smile of understanding while resting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll do everything we can to make Dusk healthy again. Try to relax, stressing won't do any good."

Shadow quietly nods before she returns to the desk, but he still doesn't touch the snack she brought. _'I need to get help...Blaze knows more about the emeralds than I do, maybe she can shed some light on why they were acting so strange,'_ Shadow thinks before digging the communicator out of his quills. While waiting for it to start, he also thinks, _'I better call Amy too. She'd put me in the hospital if something happened to Dusk on my watch and I didn't tell her.'_

He navigates through the touch menus to the call screen, then taps the choice labeled "Blaze and Silver." The device vibrates a few times before the video connects, showing Blaze looking directly at him and about half of Silver's face as he leans in to see what's happening.

"_Shadow?"_ Blaze asks, her face showing concern. Not to Shadow's surprise, after all he's one of if not their strongest member. If he's calling for help, something must be wrong. _"Something up?"_

"Its Dusk..." he hesitates, "she's in the hospital."

"_What?"_ Both of them exclaim, staring wide-eyed at him through the screen.

"_How?"_ Silver asks, _"She's a little klutzy, sure, but she's never screwed up so bad that she wound up in the hospital."_

Shadow inwardly agrees; hell, just a day ago Dusk walked past a small chair, then tripped over it not even a minute later on her way back. "Well, that's just it...some weird crap happened and, hell I don't even know. All I know is the Sol Emeralds were involved. You know more about them than I do, so..." Shadow trails off, mostly directing the last part at Blaze.

"_I get it, where are you?"_

"Sunset Beach General Hospital."

Blaze nods, "Got it, be there as quick as I can."

Shadow gives her a faint smile before clicking the device off, then munches on one of the cookies to calm his nerves. Amy's a lot more protective of Dusk than the others and more than likely to overreact...he needs to be prepared.

Just before he taps the number for Amy, another nurse approaches him. "Sir? I was sent to ask you something about Dusk," she pauses when he looks up at her, but after realizing that he won't say anything, she continues, "She isn't awake yet, or responding at all...but she did moan "Metal Dusk" a few times. Does that mean anything to you?"

Shadow sighs, "I've got a pretty good idea. Thanks."

"What does it mean?" she asks.

"It means a certain robot is going to get torn to bits."

The nurse only nods before leaving, letting Shadow dial up his next call. Once the connection is established, Sonic appears on the screen, but oddly enough Amy is nowhere to be found. _"Shadow?"_ the blue hedgehog asks, quite surprised at who's calling. _"What the hell happened to you? You look like you've seen a ghost!"_

"Look, its really hard to explain. Is Amy there?"

As if to answer, a shriek that undoubtedly came from the loose pink cannon erupts from the speaker. Sonic winces at the battle-cry and even Shadow's ears twitch at the loud noise.

"_She's a little preoccupied,"_ Sonic replies.

If a robot's giving her trouble, given Dusk's clue, there could be only one thing Amy's doing battle with. "Fighting herself?"

"_H-How did you..." _Sonic trails off, realizing the answer to his own question, "_Oh, you and Dusk run into one of Metal Sonic's friends?"_

"Dusk did..." Shadow trails off in a sigh, "That's actually the problem, Dusk's in urgent care."

"_What?"_ Sonic exclaims, _"What in the world did she mess with? Wh-where are you?"_

"It'll be easier to explain in person. Sunset Beach General Hospital, that's where we are." With that, Shadow hangs up.

He heaves a sigh, resting his head into his hand for a few seconds before finishing off the snack and then staring out the window at the dim outside; any light from the sun hidden away by rumbling storm clouds.

Shadow only has clues and ideas as to what happened to Dusk down in that base, but some pieces, like the black emeralds, just didn't fit. Still, he didn't need to know exactly what happened down there...one of Metal Sonic's twisted creations obviously got to Dusk...

...and Shadow's going to make sure that, after her gets his hands on that cocky blue robot, it'll _never_ be able to come online again.


	16. Emerald Explanation

**Just in case you jumped ahead, make sure you've read the previous chapter before starting this one. This one picks up almost immediately after the previous ends.**

* * *

Chapter 16 Emerald Explanation

"Its never a good sign when I end up here..." Dusk groans, looking around at the negative void she always goes to whenever a nightmare is readying itself. The invisible ground, the purple clouds on a black sky, its always the same...any moment now, some freakish ghoul will lunge out at her.

But at the same time, something is ominously different this time around. There's a chill in the air around her, not a freezing cold or an eerie frost, but she feels cold. A cold that slowly works it way down through her fur and skin; chilling her bones and setting her nerves on a painful edge.

She wraps her thin arms around herself in a vain attempt to warm up. "Hello?" she asks after a minute, surprised to see her breath and no ghoul around. Desperate to get things over with, Dusk starts to walk off, searching for the tardy nightmare.

* * *

"Sonic! Amy!" Blaze yells, noticing her friends catching their breath (well, Amy's catching her breath, Sonic is politely waiting with her) outside of the hospital. The two look up and are quite surprised to see the regal feline approaching.

"Blaze? What are you doing here?" Sonic asks.

"I got a call from Shadow, he said something happened to Dusk and the Sol Emeralds were involved."

"News to me," Sonic grumbles. His green eyes look down at the pink girl beside him. "Ready to go inside?"

Amy nods, leading the trio in and up to the counter. "We're here to see Dusk," she says.

The attendant gives them a hollow smile before leading further into the building.

* * *

"Okay, seriously, where the hell are you?" Dusk yells, still left by herself in the freezing abyss. She's lost track of how long she's been walking...and then the world takes a turn for the weirder when the abyss suddenly becomes a dimly lit metal hallway, like one found in an abandoned lab.

She immediately perks up and looks around, but only sees a hallway stretching onward into darkness in both directions. Severely creeped out, but unsure of what else to do, she continues on...and another eternity later, she finally comes to a room...with a very disturbing image inside...

...her birth machine. The machine that Eggman had constructed to nurture and grow her from a little cell is standing before her...although it seems to be a darker color than before.

Before she could turn around and go the other way, the machine hisses before opening up; releasing a blob of black goo onto the floor. Right before her eyes, the goo trembles, then grows into a darkened silhouette of Dusk herself.

The black likeness of herself stands for a moment, then swings an arm forward; the limb quickly expanding and becoming a sharp ebony lance. Dusk shrieks and dives away, causing the attack to stab into the metal wall behind her.

She wants to fight this thing, desperately get this nightmare over with, but she couldn't. Her legs lift her up and carry her away; her speed increasing as she hears the screech of rending metal as the demon pulls itself free. Dusk never looked back over her shoulder, but she knew that...thing is following after her.

* * *

"So...what exactly happened?" Sonic asks, doing his best to not tread on one of Shadow's nerves.

The umber hedgehog sighs, "We were going through this underwater base when a bulkhead slammed shut and separated us. It was Chaos Energy-proofed, like the whole base, so I couldn't teleport back to her. Next time we met, she was..." he trails off, trying to figure out how to describe her behavior so the others would understand, "Possessed is the only word I can think of," he says after a few seconds, then goes on to explain her look while she was insane.

"Worse part is she refused to stay down...hell, she even plowed through my attacks just to get to me!" he adds, after letting the other three gape for a minute.

The other mobians look in the window at Dusk; laying on a bed with a machine monitoring her vitals sitting nearby. Honestly, it looks like she's asleep, but she didn't make any noise, didn't twitch or roll over. She just lies there, still as a board, with a look of distress frozen to her face; like she's having a nightmare, but can't wake up from it.

Amy sadly sighs while putting a hand against the window, "She still hates herself for losing control in Station Square a year ago...I don't want to think about how she'll take this."

Blaze gives a moment of respect to the elder Rose sister before turning back to Shadow. "You mentioned something about the Sol Emeralds, right?"

"Yea," Shadow says, removing the purple and gray emeralds from his quills and handing them over to Blaze, "She was using those while trying to slice me in half, but when I took them away...she just collapsed. Even stranger...the two of them were black."

The feline's gold eyes widen, "Emitting a crimson glow?"

Shadow curiously looks at her, "How'd you know?"

"Because I know what happened to her...but first, are all of us on the same page with the emeralds?" Blaze asks, then explains, "The Chaos Emeralds release Chaos Energy, while the Sol Emeralds release Sol Energy. Chaos Energy is the stronger of the two, but can only be used by certain people; like you," she says while gesturing at Sonic, "And you Shadow. Sol Energy can be used by anyone, but provides a weaker power boost than Chaos Energy does."

"Yea, and the Chaos Emeralds react to the user's emotion and emit more energy of the appropriate charge," Sonic adds, "Like, if you're feeling heroic it releases positive energy, but when you're angry and hateful, it releases negative energy."

Blaze nods at the blue hedgehog, "Yes, the same applies to Sol Emeralds...but there's a small hitch."

Shadow and Sonic lift an eyebrow at her. This is news to the both of them.

"In the case of Sol Energy, there's some...feedback I guess. The emotion triggers the energy release, but then the energy turns around and reinforces that emotion...essentially making the user feel more brave or courageous for example," Blaze sighs and drops her head, "Which is great if it _only_ applied to the positive emotions. Trigger a Sol Emerald when you're feeling a negative emotion, and the same result happens."

"So if you use it in anger, it makes you angrier?" Sonic asks, making sure he's got a grip on the concept. He gets a nod for an answer.

"Its called 'Sol Corruption,' because, well...you tend to lose yourself when feeling a negative emotion anyway, emerald or no emerald. The Sol Energy just makes it worse," Blaze explains, then looks down at the jewels in her hand. "One emerald causing it is bad enough, but two fueling the fire? I shudder to think of what could've happened if she got her hands on a third...or even all of them..."

The other three glance away from each other. The ghoul of Dark Sonic lurked in the back of their minds ever since he showed up, however briefly. They don't want to think about the possibility of a Dark Dusk running rampant.

"And the emeralds only magnify each others power," Sonic adds, "Like lining up magnifying glasses, the more you get, the higher the magnification."

A moment of uneasy silence passes between them. "But..." Blaze says, "There's never been a case of Sol Corruption before. I thought it was just a...a myth. Meant to scare people into using the emeralds responsibly. I've even felt myself use the negative energy of a Sol Emerald on occasion, and haven't gone even as remotely berserk as what Shadow described. How could it have happened to Dusk?"

"Could the negative energy have reacted with something inside her?" Sonic offers, "Some kind of...I don't know, a fear? Or maybe her temper burst when it happened, and it just compounded that anger?"

Blaze only shrugs. She doesn't know anymore than they do.

"Now that I think about it..." Amy says, after a minute and finally joining the conversation, "Every now and then she'll have a nightmare that really seems to bother her."

"What do you mean?" Shadow asks.

"I could never get her to tell me much," Amy admits, "But, from what I could gather, sometimes she'd dream about a sinister black silhouette. Sometimes she'd run from it, others she'd fight it, but judging from the look on her face, she could never win. She wouldn't tell me what happened after it won, though...for all I know, she could've woken up before that."

* * *

Dusk continues to run, the shadow lances narrowly missing her head. Whatever illusionary laboratory she wandered into has long since melted away, and the two are now just running through the abyss.

_'I really hope this place is endless...maybe I can outlast this damn thing...'_ Dusk thinks to herself, only to feel a weight come down on her shoulder. Next moment, her face hits the invisible ground; brought down by the harsh whip-like attack from her dark twin.

Before she could recover, Dusk can feel a fluid starting to engulf her body. She screams and tries to fight the muck off, but nothing she does will get it to detach. The horrible goo swallows up everything from the neck down. Just as she thinks she'll be swallowed up by it, the demon stops and forces her to get up; then walks her off in some direction...where she doesn't know, but she's damn sure that its someplace she doesn't want to be.

* * *

"I wish I could understand what was going through her head," Blaze says, glancing through the window at Dusk. If she hoped to find a change in her condition, she's awfully disappointed. "We're her friends. Friends are supposed to be able to confide in each other, right? Then why does it feel like there's a wall she won't let us pass? Like she's hiding away her problems instead of asking for help?"

Another minute of uncomfortable silence passes before Shadow speaks up, albeit with a bitten lip. "She's told me something..." he starts, getting all three heads to turn, "Something that...I can't really understand. She's afraid of herself."

"Afraid of herself?" Sonic repeats, scratching his head, "I'm not sure if that even makes sense."

"'Herself' isn't exactly right...its more like...she's scared of her own powers," Shadow admits, "Whenever they begin to lash out, she feels as if she's losing herself. As if her powers start to take over and she has less and less control over her actions. That's the part that confuses me, her powers overriding her will..."

He seems to pause as he walks up to the window and rests a hand against it. "I want to protect her, but how do I protect Dusk from herself?"

Nobody says another word for a little while, until Sonic finally shakes his head and clenches a fist, "Come on, wallowing around in our own gloom isn't going to do any good. If it was any of us in Dusk's place, she'd have already left to tear apart whoever was responsible, not stand around and mope."

Blaze nods, "You're right Sonic. One of Metal Sonic's creations did this to Dusk, and now its time he pays for it."

"And I plan on collecting every last cent he owes," Shadow growls, his fists clenching.

The three turn and look at Amy, finding her gaze focused on her shoes instead of them. "I know I should be fired up and all...and I want to be...but I'd rather stay here, be available for Dusk when she wakes up."

Sonic smirks and ruffles Amy's hair, getting her to squeak in surprise and hop away. "I thought you'd say something like that Ames," he laughs, then fetches the communicator in his quills and hands it to her. "Call us when she wakes up, we'll make sure to save something for the two of you to smash up."

The pink hedgehog finally manages a smile before hugging her beloved Sonic. She accompanies the other three heroes down to the front doors of the hospital, where they find a dry thunderstorm waiting outside.

"Ominous weather, isn't it?" Blaze remarks, her fur bristling.

"Never stopped us before," Shadow replies.

The three give a good-bye to Amy before charging out the door and out of sight down the street. Amy sighs, placing a hand into her pocket and finding the red Sol Emerald still there. She'd completely forgotten to give it to Blaze! _'Well, too late now. I only hope that Burning Blaze won't be needed...'_ Amy sighs before turning on her heel and heading back up to Dusk's room.

Things seem fine, until a loud electronic shrieking catches Amy's attention. Hurrying towards the noise, Amy finds a very disturbing sight; the machine making the horrific noise is the one that was attached to Dusk, but the purple hedgehog is nowhere to be found and the window of her room smashed open.

The pink girl hurries into the room and looks out the window; seeing a purple blur rushing off into the distance. "Dusk!" Amy yells, leaping out the window and following after her. _'I don't get it, why is she running away?'_

To get that answer, Amy speeds up, following after and desperate to catch the little flicker of purple up ahead.

* * *

**A slightly modified disclaimer here: While I do not own the Chaos or Sol Emeralds, I did create this interpretation of how their powers work. I also created the whole concept of Sol Corruption. I am willing to let other authors use the Sol Corruption concept in their stories, if they so wish, but I'd like it if you ask me in advance.**


End file.
